Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia has expressed doubts that the crisis in Myanmar would be resolved any time soon and ruled out a third trip there by Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn in his capacity as ASEAN’s special envoy.
Phnom Penh Post reported that Hun Sen made the remarks on December 12 while meeting with over 2,000 members of the Cambodian diaspora in Brussels, Belgium. Hun Sen is among ASEAN leaders attending thecurrent ASEAN-EU Commemorative Summit.
“I predict that Myanmar takes at least five more years to sort out. If anyone thinks they have a good solution to that problem, they should go try solving it. I’m almost done with my term so the ASEAN chair’s special envoy isn’t going back to Myanmar,” he said.
He added that when Cambodia chaired ASEAN this year, it was already a very complicated period, but at that same time there were also many things Cambodia had achieved which demonstrated its confidence, capacity and responsibility as the chair of ASEAN.
“When we went to the ASEAN-US summit, I addressed the leaders of ASEAN and the president of the US. I said that the ASEAN chair this year was like a hot potato or a hot stone,” he said. “But I laughed a bit and said that pretty soon I will toss this hot stone over to the president of Indonesia.”
According to Phnom Penh Post, Hun Sen told outgoing Japanese ambassador to Cambodia Mikami Masahiro on December 8 that Cambodia had strived to help the country return to normalcy, but now it would be Indonesia’s turn to take the lead on the issue in 2023. President Joko Widodo of Indonesia will take over the ASEAN chair next year.
Foreign Minister Sokhonn had earlier planned to make a third trip to Myanmar to renew efforts to help resolve the crisis there but later admitted to having dropped the idea.
This photo taken on February 13, 2022, shows protesters participating in a demonstration against the military coup in Ayadaw Township, in Monywa District in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar. (Photo by AFP)
