PM Pulls No Punches on US Arrival

In a wide-ranging speech to ruling Cambodian People’s Party supporters in California yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen slammed the US government as well as the opposition, and said his presence at the US-ASEAN Summit at Rancho Mirage was no different than that of US President Barack Obama’s. Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Hun Sen said he was attending the summit as the leader of a sovereign nation. He reminded the audience that his government is a partner to Washington, not subservient to it.

The prime minister also took the opportunity to address the Cambodian-American Alliance protest that will meet him today, and criticize American economic and foreign policy, as well as the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

Mr. Hun Sen appealed to Cambodians living in the US to “wake up” and stop being deceived by the CNRP’s insistence that elections in Cambodia are neither free nor fair. He also called the opposition’s leaders liars over their claims about the demarcation of the Cambodia-Vietnam border. “A long time ago, [they] lied about the border issue, and lately about maps: the United Nation maps, the French maps and the Cambodian maps,” the premier said. “But they did not have enough evidence, because they have only 24 pieces while the other maps have 26 pieces.”

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