GPS survey to settle Vietnamese-Cambodian border

via CAAI

22/12/2010

Geoff Norris

An extensive GPS survey has been commissioned to define the highly-sensitive shared border between Cambodia and Vietnam.

The governments of the two South East Asian nations have announced a joint project - to be carried out by a specialist Danish team of surveyors - that will update the current maps of the border, which are more than 60 years old.

Due to the advanced, satellite-based surveying equipment available for the project, what would have once been a very time and personnel-intensive mission, will now be carried out in less than two years, with a budget of under £1 million (approximately US$1.5 million).

Nguyen Hong Thao, deputy director of the border committee of Vietnam, said the topographic map was an important step in fully realising a border treaty signed between the two nations in 2005.

"Producing a border land map of both countries will help transform the borderlines to become cooperative, peaceful and friendly," he said.

The Cambodian government has come under fire recently from one opposition party, which has claimed that Cambodia has ceded certain tracts of territory to Vietnam at a number of points along the border. Government officials have said the new maps will meet stringent international standards, and allow the two countries to moderate any potential border conflicts.