Prime Minister Hun Sen said the government has improved democracy, rights and the rule of law in Cambodia — despite “external pressures” — and there was “no justifiable reason” for outsiders to call for “restoring democracy and human rights” in the country.
What lies ahead for Cambodian politics this year is a prolonging of the political quagmire that has dragged down the country for at least two years, according to analysts. Things could eventually improve, but there is no quick fix, they say.
The U.S. government on Monday sanctioned a senior Cambodian official and a timber tycoon, both close allies of Prime Minister Hun Sen, for alleged corruption, a move that Cambodia branded an “ambush” that threatened bilateral relations.
The dissolved opposition party has reorganized and raised funds in the U.S., a situation that amounts to U.S. support for a “terrorist movement,” government spokesman Phay Siphan said on Thursday, the morning after the new U.S. ambassador to Cambodia landed in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry on Tuesday responded to a video from the U.S. State Department, which called opposition leader Kem Sokha’s ongoing detention without trial “baseless,” by noting that Sokha had been released from prison to the “comfort of his home” a year ago.
The first 14 out of 83 containers of plastic waste imported to the country, supposedly from the U.S. and Canada, have been sent back to their countries of origin, the customs department said.
Political tensions are threatening Cambodia’s duty-free access to the E.U. and U.S. markets. Driving the tensions is the E.U. and U.S.’s insistence on Cambodia restoring the appearances of democracy, including the release of former opposition leader Kem Sokha from house arrest.
An American newspaper on Thursday stood by its reporting of U.S. claims that Cambodia had agreed to give China’s military exclusive access to a Cambodian
China’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday again skirted claims it had struck a deal to gain exclusive military access to a Cambodian naval base, instead denying
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday denied reported U.S. claims that Cambodia had signed an agreement with China to give the Chinese military exclusive access
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