31 March 2012

Editorial: Cambodia Readies for ASEAN

By Tim LaRocco

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit will take place April 3-4 in Phnom Penh. As the new chair of the regional bloc for the 2012 year, Cambodia will have an opportunity to show off its capital’s latest developments, both socioeconomic and political. The streets are already being decked out with symbols of national pride, and flags of the other nine ASEAN countries have been hung from the street lights of Phnom Penh’s busiest boulevards.

Judging from the level of security already evident on the streets here for last week’s meeting between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Burmese President Thein Sein, no one anticipates a repeat of the kind of scenes witnessed at the 2009 summit in Pattaya, Thailand. That summit was abandoned after Red Shirt protesters stormed the resort where the conference was taking place, resulting in delegates having to be airlifted from the top of the hotel.
Read the full story at The Diplomat