PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (EAC News) — Cambodia’s National Assembly President Khuon Sudary on Thursday met with a delegation from China’s Shaanxi province, vowing to deepen cooperation in agriculture, tourism and youth exchanges as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral ties.

The delegation, led by Zhang Zhichuan, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Shaanxi Province, held talks at the National Assembly Palace in Phnom Penh.

Khuon Sudary said the visit was significant for advancing parliamentary cooperation and highlighted the “Diamond Cooperation Framework and Action Plan 2024–2028,” which seeks to elevate Cambodia–China ties to what both countries describe as an “all-weather community of shared future.”

She recalled the historical foundations of the relationship, forged by Cambodia’s late King Father Norodom Sihanouk and Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and strengthened in recent decades under Prime Minister Hun Manet and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Zhang introduced Shaanxi as a key industrial hub in central China, with four main pillars of development: agriculture, culture and tourism, energy and electricity, and mineral resources and technology. He also called for more youth exchanges, noting that while Cambodian culture is featured in Shaanxi school textbooks, few students have traveled to Cambodia.

The two sides praised the sister-city partnership between Siem Reap and Shaanxi, with Khuon Sudary saying people-to-people ties complement national-level cooperation. The delegation also invited her to visit Shaanxi and to attend the China Taiyuan International Energy Forum in September.

Khuon Sudary reaffirmed Cambodia’s commitment to peaceful coexistence and international law, calling China an “indispensable strategic economic partner” in the country’s goal of becoming a high-income economy by 2050. She also thanked Beijing for supporting Cambodia’s development and providing humanitarian aid to civilians displaced by border clashes with Thailand.