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| Image: Flickr User - World Economic Forum |
By Mong Palatino
Premier hits out at critics who blame ASEAN’s unprecedented failure to issue a joint communique in 2012 on Cambodia.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is seeking apology from those who criticized him in 2012 when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) failed to issue a joint communique for the first time in the organization’s history during Cambodia’s chairmanship.
In 2012, some analysts accused Cambodia, then the ASEAN chair, of blocking efforts to include strong language on maritime disputes in the South China Sea in a regular joint statement so as not to antagonize China, Phnom Penh’s largest trading partner.
Hun Sen discussed the issue in an impromptu speech during a university graduation ceremony on February 5. He claimed that during his meeting with United States Secretary of State John Kerry, who visited Cambodia last month, he expressed his exasperation against the unjust accusations hurled against him and Cambodia regarding the failure of ASEAN to preserve its unity in the face of the divisive South China Sea disputes.
“Maybe it is time to return justice to me. I told John Kerry I was disappointed when they [critics] said that Cambodia’s closeness to China was the obstacle to realizing the Code of Conduct in South China Sea,” Hun Sen said.
He added that even when Cambodia was no longer the chair of ASEAN, other countries has also failed to make progress on the issue, including through finalizing a binding code of conduct that has long proven elusive.
Read the full story at The Diplomat