A delegation of young military officers from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia visited the tri‑border marker that marks the meeting point of the three countries and joined exchanges at the Vietnam–Laos–Cambodia Friendship Cultural House in Bo Y commune, officials said.
The visit brought into focus a structure built in 2007 and inaugurated in January 2008 that has since hosted major diplomatic events: the first provincial‑level Vietnam–Laos–Cambodia Border Friendship Exchange in 2018 and the first Vietnam–Laos–Cambodia Border Defence Friendship Exchange in 2023. Delegation members presented 20 gift packages to poor students and disadvantaged households and handed over 1,000 notebooks and 500 books to local students during the visit.
Lieut. Sengsouliya Ounlasy said he was deeply moved to visit the tri‑border marker and learn about the history symbolising solidarity and friendship among the three nations, and pledged to further improve his professional capacity to help nurture good‑neighbourly ties for a more stable and developed region. Maj. Som Sambo described the marker as a reflection of solidarity built and strengthened through generations, and said Cambodian young officers will continue promoting the role of younger generations in preserving and developing a region of peace, friendship, cooperation and development.
The delegates were introduced at the Friendship Cultural House to the traditional ties among Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia—ties described during the exchanges as forged through their struggles for national independence and defence. Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defence presented the Vietnam–Laos–Cambodia Friendship Cultural House in Bo Y commune on the occasion of the first Border Defence Friendship Exchange, and the site has since become a regular venue for political and defence diplomacy in the tri‑border area.
Organizers and participants attribute concrete effects to those meetings. The activities held at the marker and the cultural house, they say, have helped strengthen political trust, foster solidarity and friendship, and enhance cooperation and mutual understanding among border protection forces, authorities and people of the three countries. Delegates and hosts noted the cumulative impact: contributing to building a border area of peace, stability, cooperation and development.
That hopeful record carries an implicit pressure. The events themselves are largely symbolic markers of cooperation; the responsibility to translate those symbols into everyday security, economic ties and educational opportunity now falls to a new generation. Lieut. Sengsouliya’s promise to improve professional capacity and Som Sambo’s insistence that young officers will keep promoting that role underline how much of the future depends on junior officers, local authorities and communities to maintain momentum.
For diplomats and defence planners, however, the visit is not just ceremony. It was a practical reaffirmation that cooperation among Vietnam, Laos and cambodia continues to expand across politics, defence‑security, economy, culture, education and people‑to‑people exchanges—precisely the arenas where local goodwill must be reinforced by training, resources and routine collaboration.
The visit closed where it began: at a concrete marker set into the landscape in 2007 and opened a year later. Because those stones have already hosted exchanges in 2018 and 2023 and now the current delegation’s trip, the clearest conclusion is that the three countries are deliberately investing in generational continuity—using symbols, cultural outreach and small acts of assistance to lock in cooperation that officials say will keep the border area peaceful and developmental for years to come.
