ASEAN Secretary General Visits Cambodia

ASEAN Secretary General Visits Cambodia


by Chhorng Long Heng

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation H.E Hor Nam Hong on August 16 met with visiting ASEAN Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuvan on the talks on main issues of ASEAN affairs and border issues between kingdom of Cambodia and kingdom of Thailand .



The role of ASEAN secretary general is very important for building the ASEAN community which planned to achieve in 2015,”Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong told reporters at the ministry after the half an hour talk with Dr. Surin.



ASEAN needs to integrate fully to reach to establish the ASEAN communities in 2015, He added. We also have talked about the cooperation of Cambodian Muslim association and Thai Muslim association in the purpose of strengthening cooperation for mutual benefits.



Dr. Surin led the Thai Muslim association here to let the communities know each other for making closer cooperation. “The religious communities will have to keep stability, peace, and development in region,” Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong added.



Foreign Minister continued that ASEAN needs to cooperate with other regional and international organizations such as African Unions, The Shanghai Cooperation Organization ( an intergovernmental mutual-security organization which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). “ASEAN have to strengthen the cooperation with other regional organizations to build prestige and reputation of ASEAN and fighting against terrorism,” he stresses.



He added that Chairman of ASEAN ( Vietnam ) and other ASEAN members also need time to decide on border issues between Cambodia and Thailand as Deputy Prime Minister sent the letter for help on the issues last week.



In a separate case, Dr. Surin also paid the courtesy call on Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen on August 16. “Two leaders exchanged the views about border issues between Cambodia and Thailand ,”H.E. Sry Thamarong, Minister attached to Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen told reporters after the two hour talks.



Both leaders had talked from heartfelt and honesty and urge to keep maximum restraints for border issues and seek peaceful deal, Sry said, adding that now Cambodia is following up the behavior of Thai government over border issues.



He stated that Cambodia and Thailand as ASEAN members need to solve border issues through peaceful deal and consensus. That is honor for ASEAN. Dr. Surin told Samdech that late this year it will have a large community of Muslim community to visit here to help Cambodian community in the country.



Dr. Suirn told reporters at the foreign ministry that on border issues, both sides need to solve it through peaceful deals. Dr. Surin quoted as saying by The Bangkok Post that Samdehc Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai PM Abhisit expected to meet at Brussels in the sideline of ASEAN-Europe in October.



The border issue between Cambodia and Thailand intensified tensions for late development when Thai side plan to use forces through secret map which was drawn unilaterally to take Cambodia’s territory of 4.6 square km near 11th century Khmer Preah Vihear temple.

From that, Samdech PM Hun Sen sent a letter to secretary general of UN and president of Security Council respectively to help deal issues. Samdech PM Hun Sen said that UN SG Ban will visit here in October this year. UN SG Ban gave green light to help mediate on border issue for two countries, the statement from UN center said.



DPM Hor Nam Hong also sent the letter to ASEAN chairman ( Vietnam ) and other ASEAN countries to help deal border issues to avoid the large scale armed clash. On July 15, 2008, Thailand sent troop to encroach the area in a week later after Cambodia listed successfully the temple with the world heritage committee on July 7, 2008 and the late development Thailand has opposed the management plan of the temple. Thailand urged Cambodia to jointly list but Cambodia has not agreed to do so.



Dr. Surin here is to attend a major international pandemic preparedness exercise in Phnom Penh on Friday which is held on 16-20 August, having explored key issues that Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to consider when preparing to face future pandemics. The event, which was a first-of-its-kind anywhere in the world, prepare for the occurrence of a major pandemic. ###