Phnom Penh, May 30, 2019 –Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, took part in the 25th International Conference on the Future of Asia in Tokyo, Japan this morning under the theme “Seeking a New Global Order – Overcoming the Chaos”.
In his keynote address on the occasion, the Cambodian Premier highlighted Asia’s rapid economic development as well as its challenges, saying that this International Conference will instigate new initiatives and notable recommendations in order to improve the current situation aiming to build a glorious future for our region with sustainable and inclusive development in prosperity, peaceful co-existence, and harmony through building confidence, understanding, and mutual trust.
Samdech Techo Hun Sen called for strengthening cooperation in the context of globalisation, which is a global trend that has spurred significant economic growth and created unprecedented conditions for poverty reduction and improvement of people’s livelihoods, especially in poor countries like Cambodia. Simultaneously, anti-globalisation trends are also existing, due to the development gap, level of income gap, rising of social inequality within and between nations, which induces a loss of trust between people and creates fears of globalisation. As a least developing country, Cambodia is deeply concerned about any unilateral decisions that defy against the principles and rules of international laws, as well as the avoidance of responsibility of any international treaties and agreements. Such actions have destabilised to some extent the state-to-state-relationship and raised tensions in the international community.
The Cambodian leader also laid stress on institutional arrangement and global governing rule restructuring based on core principles and global values. In fact, he explained, the emergence of new block and economic poles requires restructuring of institutional architecture and global governance rules to ensure balanced power-interest sharing, accountability and enforcement of obligations of each party in a proper and effective manner. Within the multipolar world, it is necessary to divide a clear responsibility, build trust and strengthen cooperation among the major polarities as well as to continue encouraging participation of developing countries together with promoting the role of the multilateral institutions. This would create a favorable environment for ensuring that all stakeholders can jointly address the challenges and build new world architecture with balance, inclusiveness and justice.
The Prime Minister also appealed to all countries to respect each other’s sovereignty and way of governing. “We have already known that some political, economic, and social ideologies have come to retaliate against the great ideologies that are currently ruling over the present world order. Having said that, we should admit that there is no perfect ideology. There are pros and cons in each ideology, demonstrating that what is good for one country or society, it is not necessarily good for the other, mainly due to the different contexts and features in each country. Therefore, the principle of peaceful co-existence, non-interference and respect for one another’s livelihood, tradition, customs, and history, should be one of the highest values essentially required by all states for their international affairs. If a nation chooses a good path for itself, we should respect such decision because it is a sovereign and internal choice of that country, as long as that decision contributes to improving the quality of life and complementing to potential of human resource development,” he said.
According to Samdech Techo Hun Sen, building and keeping peace and security are also necessary. Peace and security in a country and region are the essential foundation of development. Hence, it is the highest priority of every nation to build and keep peace and security. “Peace cannot be achieved on its own. We all have heard or known about countries, some of us here have been through limitless suffering as a result of armed conflicts and untraditional threats such as terrorism. Evidently, Cambodia has only managed to attain complete peace and security over the last two decades. This historical achievement has been realised through introducing of the Win-Win Policy by the Royal Government of Cambodia that has brought along an average economic growth of 7.7 percent per annum, and a better living standard for all Cambodian people. In this regard, the nation as a whole recognises the most to the efforts of keeping peace and stability, together with the promotion for inclusive growth, benefiting the entire nation,” he added.
Samdech Techo Hun Sen affirmed Cambodia’s readiness to further contribute and strengthen the cooperation with all relevant partners in the context of the new multipolar world, aiming to promote globalisation, pluralism spirit, rule-based free trade system which provide equitable and fair benefits to all relevant stakeholders.
By C. Nika
