Can you explain us briefly what are the main lines of the foreign policy of the Kingdom of Cambodia?

Cambodia has known a long period of war and turmoil. From 1970 to 1998 we've known civil war. Particularly during the Khmer Rouge regime, everything was destroyed in Cambodia. Therefore, after the election in 1998, the government has set up a triangular strategy.

This triangular strategy lies, of course, in three main points;
- The first side is to consolidate peace and stability in Cambodia. Which is done since 1998, when we achieved complete peace; the Khmer Rouge have been destroyed, almost all of them having defected to the Royal Government of Cambodia.
- Secondly, is to integrate Cambodia into the international community. What we have done: we joined ASEAN and we are currently cooperating with all the main international organizations such as the World Bank, IMF, ADB, the UNDP, etc., that is the second side of the triangle.
- The third side is to develop the country economically and socially. And these are the three sides of our triangular strategy.

The main mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to reintegrate Cambodia in the international community and to enhance the cooperation with international institutions.

Since we are fully integrated with the international community, what is the foreign policy of Cambodia? You have to take into consideration that this latter cannot be separated from the main strategy of the Royal Government of Cambodia, which is the economic development of the country.

Therefore, within the ASEAN, Cambodia is very active; in fact we have to narrow the gap between the six old ASEAN countries and the new members: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. We have to deal bi-laterally with all our friendly countries in order to get more assistance (ODA), needed for the economic development of Cambodia and also increase foreign investment. As I used to say, to develop the country we need not only ODA but also foreign investment. It is through FDI that we will be able to create jobs for our people, get more transfer of technology and therefore develop the economy.

Of course, our foreign policy is also to enhance the very good relations we have with donor countries such as Japan, which is one of the most important donor countries to Cambodia with China. Concerning China we always had a very strong relationship tied to the personal relations between His Majesty the King Norodom Sihanouk and all leaders of China. We also have very good relations with the European Union, in particular with France, which knows Cambodia very well due to their protectorate period; I would like to underline, concerning France, that we are not talking about colonialism but protectorate, which lasted for more than 100 years. We try our best to keep good relations with all the international community, with the U.S. in particular and Australia who has helped us a lot before.

Therefore, to summarize, I would say that our foreign policy is mainly focused on getting involved for the economic development of Cambodia by keeping good relations, and strong co-operation with all friendly countries and international organizations.

You just talked about the ASEAN, Cambodia also joined the Great Mekong Sub-region and will soon become a member of the WTO. What are the benefits your country expects to achieve through all this macro-economic integration?

By joining ASEAN we not only beneficiate from bi-lateral assistance but we also get help, as a new members, to narrow the gap between the existing members and the new ones and obtain a good level of development for all the ASEAN countries. We also benefit with assistance from all the countries in what we call the "ASEAN Dialogue Partners". There are ten countries that also assist the new members, through the Joint Co-operation Committee with Australia, India, and so on; with all the ten dialogue partners.

We hope that this year, perhaps in September, we will be able to accede to the WTO. As you may know, Cambodia has benefited GSP (General System of Preferences) most favorable nation, from many countries such as USA, Canada, EU, Australia, and so on. With our accession to the WTO, Cambodia will accede to an important market, therefore I consider it is an important step if we accede to the WTO this year.

As you said, Cambodia is a country with a long relation with the international economical institutions like the World Bank, IMF and ADB. What are the current relations with those institutions?

From 1993, when we first started to have co-operation with the World Bank, ADB and IMF, we have kept very good co-operation with all of them and nowadays we are still enjoying their very useful assistance.

For instance, the World Bank committed as December 2002 for $481 million to Cambodia. Nevertheless we can underline the fact that their disbursement was only up to 63%. As far as the ADB is concerned their disbursal is about 55% of what they committed in the amount of $569 million to our country. We are very pleased with the commitment taken by these organizations to help Cambodia but we wish that they disbursed according to what they committed. By being present they can see with their own eyes what Cambodia has done and is trying to do in the field of economic development and their presence here is very useful for the development of Cambodia.

The government of Japan has been historically one of the main supporters for the development of Cambodia, with plenty of donations and technical assistance. Can you explain us the nature of those relations and what are the current relations between both countries?

We have very good relations with Japan. The relations between both countries have been always particular. Despite of the changes of government in Japan, their position towards Cambodia has never changed; assistance to our country has always been a constant within the Japanese policy and this is a very important fact for the Cambodian government.

According to us there are over 800 NGO's in Cambodia. What are the actual criteria's to allow these organizations to settle in your country and what are your relations with them?

No one knows exactly how many NGO's there is in Cambodia; I was told that there were more than one thousand. In what concerns the foreign NGO's, at the Ministry we have registered around 200, but there are a lot of them that are not yet registered. We maintain very good co-operation with the NGO's since we overthrew the Khmer Rouge Regime in 1979. At this time, Cambodia was isolated from the international community; there was no assistance, no aid and no investment. We had known an embargo and at that time the NGO's came here and helped the Cambodian people.

After the collapse of the Khmer Rouge Regime we were facing hunger as, before leaving the city, they burned all the rice and food stocks. The international NGO's came here without any governmental assistance. Many of them are still here helping the Cambodian people. These facts can explain that we always had very good co-operation with the NGO's, even for political and human rights NGO's. We seriously take into consideration their opinions when we prepare draft of laws, as many of their recommendations are included in those drafts.

Lately H.E. Prime Minister Hun Sen reopened the border with Thailand after turmoil relationship during the last months. What are the steps undertaken by your Ministry to rebuild and normalize relations with Thailand after the recent events of January?

I have to say that relations between Cambodia and Thailand have never been broken. Although we have had demonstrations that turned to violence, the two governments have always kept contacts. Myself, after the demonstrations, I visited Bangkok where I was received by His Majesty the King of Thailand, the Prime Minister and my counterpart the Thai Foreign Minister. In order to establish healthy relations, after the January events, we agreed the following:
· First, the RGC have accepted to compensate the Thai government for all the damages caused to their interests in Cambodia.
· Secondly we committed ourselves to arrest the leaders and all the people who incited violence against Thai interests.

And we keep our word; we have already compensated Thailand with more than $US5 million for the restoration of the Thai embassy. In any case, I would prefer not to use the words 'rebuild diplomatic relations' because relations have never been broken, although they have stepped down at the level of chargée d'affaires. We have now decided to re-open the border and we will also send diplomatic missions in each capital; within days we should concretize it; send back our ambassador to Bangkok and receive the Thai ambassador to Phnom Penh.

The actual event that attracts the attention on a global scale is the crisis in Iraq. What are, according to you, the repercussions of this conflict for Asia and Cambodia and what is the official position of the Royal Government of Cambodia regarding this conflict?

First I must say that we sincerely regret that a peaceful solution could not be found to disarm from weapons of mass destruction, if there is any, the Iraqi regime. Any war will cause certainly losses of innocent civilian people; therefore we deeply regret this war.

Talking about its repercussions, the impact depends on how long the war will last. This is the main question, how long the war will last? But according to what I saw on TV, we can maybe expect the war to be very brief. The repercussions will be noticed worldwide not only in Asia. If this war lasts a long time, we might have an oil crisis that will increase the prices everywhere for any type of good. So the standard of living of the people, in particular the people in developing countries, will suffer from the negative effect of this war.

One important issue in the Cambodian agenda is the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Last week a draft agreement was signed in the presence of UN head negotiator Mr. Hans Corell. What does this Tribunal mean for Cambodia and when do you expect the Tribunal to actually take place?

We are very happy with this agreement. We are happy that the UN accepted to help Cambodia to try the Khmer Rouge leaders. This also shows that the Royal Government of Cambodia always keeps its word. In the past, many people said that Cambodian leaders did not want to try the Khmer Rouge; they were wrong, we want to try the Khmer Rouge for Cambodian history. We want to try the Khmer Rouge to grant justice for the Cambodian people who survived that regime and those who died; millions of Cambodians. Do I have to underline that 3 million people died under the Khmer Rouge regime? In each family there are at least 5, 6, 10 or 20 people killed. In my own family, I have 5 brothers and sisters and my wife also has 5 brothers and sisters. We have never counted exactly how many victims of the Khmer Rouge we had in my family but roughly it might be about 30. Every Cambodian family has the same experience. It is a tremendous tragedy for Cambodia and that is why we have to judge these Khmers Rouge.

Therefore we are very happy that we signed this agreement with the UN. Now that the agreement is signed, we have to see how to try them as soon as possible. If we cannot try the Khmer Rouge in a short time these people will die, as some of them are sick others are more than 70 by now.

Could you tell us about your career path and your highest satisfaction while in office?

I have had a diplomatic career. In 1970, when King Norodom Sihanouk was Head of State by the Lon Nol regime, I was a diplomat in Paris. And when the coup d'etat took place, I decided to join the United Front of King Sihanouk. From then on, I was involved in politics. From a diplomatic career I became a politician.

I am very happy with my current position because I am able to help our people and I can help Cambodia to move ahead. Nowadays I think that the image of Cambodia in the world is good. We organized very successfully several summits in Phnom Penh, last November. The first ever GMS summit was organized in Phnom Penh, then the ASEAN summit plus three (China, Japan and Korea) and for the first time we also had the ASEAN summit with India. Last but not least we invited the President of South Africa to come here to brief our leaders about the new partnership of Africa.

What was really important on that occasion, was not only that we organized successfully many summits at the same time but mainly the substance we got out of it; the documents that were signed by our leaders. In November, the ASEAN plus three leaders talked more about East Asia as a whole and we have paved the way for the future East Asia co-operation; the East Asia forum, East Asia summit, East Asia community as a whole. But we need time for this to be achieved, we have to achieve first a successful integration among the ASEAN countries.

Next June we will enhance this initiative and host three very important meetings in Phnom Penh; the meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers, on the 16th, the meeting of the Asian Regional Forum (ARF), on the 18th and on the 19th we have a meeting with our dialogue partners that we call the PMC, "Post Ministerial Conference".

Your Ministry is working to develop the economical and social welfare of Cambodia. What would be your final message to foreign investors interested into Cambodia?

I would say that Cambodia now enjoys fully peace and stability. Furthermore, Cambodia has a huge potential for tourism through our ancient temples.

You have to think ahead; Cambodia is not only a 12 million Cambodians market, it is a 500 million people market within the ASEAN. We should settle the ASEAN free trade area in 2010. Furthermore Last November, during the ASEAN plus three summits in Phnom Penh, we have paved the way for a free trade area with China, Japan and India within the next 10 years.

Therefore, investing in Cambodia can offer investors a huge market; ASEAN plus China, Korea, Japan and India. These countries represent more than half of the world's population, more than 3 billion; you can produce here in the free trade area and then export.

We also established what we call an Industrial Processing Zone. Now we have a market chained to MFN (Most Favorite Nation) and GSP (General System of Preferences), but we have not enough goods to export to fulfill our quotas. Therefore, we created this Industrial Processing Zone to attract Thai and Vietnamese investments.

As a conclusion, I would like to see all our foreign friends coming to Cambodia and assessing themselves the potential of the country for their investments.