Cambodia hails US ties, seeks relief on China-linked sanctions

PHNOM PENH (Bloomberg): Cambodia said ties with the US had improved significantly and it expects the Biden administration to lift sanctions imposed over its ties with China "very soon,” a senior minister said on Wednesday (May 25). "We’re pushing very hard,” Kao Kim Hourn, Cambodia’s minister delegate to the country’s long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen, said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, referring to negotiations over sanctions.

"This is the best point we’ve had in our relationship in the past 72 years,” he said. "Bilateral trade and investment are rising and the leaders have met. We hope that we can achieve much more progress on some areas based on mutual respect.”

President Joe Biden hosted leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Washington earlier this month, as part of a broader US push to counter Chinese influence in the region. As current chair of the grouping, Cambodia will host a series of summits in November, which Biden is expected to attend.

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