Obama Visit Would Boost US Regional Influence: Analysts

Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

“The US also sees the importance of Cambodia for enlarging its potential power to balance against China in the region.”

Political analysts say a visit to Cambodia by US President Barack Obama would greatly boost US influence here, where China holds much sway.

A US official said this week that Obama could participate in an Asean summit to be hosted in Cambodia in November.

The president and other US officials say they want to improve the US position in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ou Virak, head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said Tuesday the US can have strong partners in the region by supporting Asean and the 10 countries it represents.

Obama, Clinton visits set

"foreign states will tolerate, or even positively assist, a dictatorship" to serve the foreign states' "own economic or political interests." - Gene Sharp

Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Vong Sokheng and Kristin Lynch
The Phnom Penh Post

In a sign of “improving” relations between Cambodia and the United States, the Kingdom will host US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this year, officials confirmed yesterday. The visit would be the first by a sitting US president.

Joseph Yun, the US deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said yesterday that Clinton and Obama would make separate visits in July and November, respectively.

“We expect to have our Secretary of State here in July, as well as our President for the [ASEAN-US] summit,” he said, following a closed-door meeting with Ouch Borith, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ouch Borith confirmed his counterpart’s statement.

US President Could Attend Asean Summit Later This Year - លោក អូបាម៉ា ​គ្រោង​ទៅ​ចូលរួម​ប្រជុំ​អាស៊ាន​នៅ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា​ក្នុង​ខែ​វិច្ឆិកា

(Photo: AP)

Monday, 16 January 2012
Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“So we have a really exciting year ahead.”

President Barack Obama is expected to attend an Asean summit in Phnom Penh in November, officials said Monday.

Following a meeting between Joseph Yun, the US State Department’s chief of East Asia and Pacific, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, Yun said the US expects to have the president at the Asean summit in November, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“So we have a really exciting year ahead,” Yun said.

Cambodia is currently serving a rotating presidency for Asean.

They have time to meet a Vietcong, but no time to see Khmer suffering: The leaders of the Kingdom of Wonder

NA Chairrman Nguyen Sinh Hung meets with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni on the occasion of his official visit to Cambodia. Hung stressed the Vietnamese people attached importance to relations with Cambodia and would do their best to constantly develop bilateral ties.— VNA/VNA Photo Nhan Sang

Assembly Chairman meets King and Prime Minister of Cambodia

September, 19 2011
VNS

PHNOM PENH — Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung last Saturday met Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Hun Sen as part of his official visit to Cambodia .

Meeting with King Norodom Sihamoni, Hung stressed that the Vietnamese Party, State, National Assembly and people attached special importance to relations with Cambodia and would do their best to constantly develop bilateral ties following the motto "Good neighbours, traditional friendship, comprehensive co-operation and lasting sustainability", which was agreed by the two countries' leaders.

Hung conveyed best regards from Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, State President Truong Tan Sang and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to King Norodom Sihamoni, former King Norodom Sihanouk and the Queen Mother.

King Norodom Sihamoni expressed his admiration at Viet Nam' s great achievements in the recent past and thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for their precious support and assistance to the Cambodian people.

Freedom House discusses about freedom in Cambodia

05 Dec 2007
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

On Wednesday, officials from the US-based Freedom House indicated that this organization considers political freedom in Cambodia to relatively good, however, the rule of law, the freedom of expression and protests are still weak.

These issues were raised during an open meeting between representatives of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) and Mrs. Lisa Davis, deputy director of the human rights and democracy program for the Freedom House organization.

Lisa Davis said that her visit (to Cambodia) was also made to review the freedom of political parties for the election campaign and the participation in the upcoming July 2008 election.

She also indicated that Freedom House gave Cambodia a score of 6 in terms of political freedom rights, however, Cambodia scores the lowest when it comes to the rule of law. Nevertheless, Cambodia still has a lot of opportunities to improve these scores in the future. Freedom House visited Cambodia based on an invitation by the USAID agency.

Regarding the issue raised about, Thon Saray, CHRAC director who also participated in the open meeting, said: “The Freedom House organization seems to be well known in the world for ranking the freedom rights in each country.”

A source indicated that three Freedom House representatives led by Thomas Melia, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday, and they will continue their visit until the end of this week.

Om Yen Tieng, Hun Sen’s senior advisor and chairman of the Cambodian government Human Rights commission, said that he has plan to meet and discuss with Freedom House representatives on Thursday of this week.

There is no immediate reaction from the government yet about the evaluation provided by Freedom House representatives.

Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), who just met with the Freedom House delegation, said: “There were numerous instance of prevention against opinion forums organized by CCHR in 2007.”

The visit of Freedom House representatives coincides with the visit of Prof. Yash Ghai, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia, to Cambodia. Prof. Ghai will remain in Cambodia for 10 days, until 10 December 2007, in order to review the situation of human rights and land disputes in Cambodia.

Prof. Ghai met with civil society organizations, and he also requested to meet with prime minister Hun Sen and vice-prime minister Sok San, as well as a number of other government officials. However, a source indicated that Prof. Ghai’s request did not receive any reply yet from the government.