Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, has highly appreciated the 1st ASEAN-Australia Annual Summit and looked forward for more cooperation with Australia as Cambodia will be the ASEAN Chair next year.
According to his remarks to this virtual summit this morning, Samdech Techo Prime Minister said the holding of the annual ASEAN-Australia Summit is a testament to the joint commitment and great achievements, which can be considered as the opening of a new page in the history of the ASEAN-Australia strategic partnership.
With this good partnership, Cambodia would like to support the elevation of ASEAN-Australia relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, he said, stressing that Cambodia highly appreciates the Australian for ASEAN Future Initiative to address challenges in the three pillars of ASEAN.
Concerning the COVID-19 crisis, Cambodia highly appreciates Australia’s active contribution to the multilateral campaign to combat COVID-19, as well as revitalise and boost regional economic growth, especially by launching the Partnerships for Recovery Strategy and identifying ASEAN as a key partner, he underlined.
In the context of living with COVID-19, he added, building a dynamic, prosperous and inclusive ASEAN community is very crucial. In this regard, Cambodia would like to encourage Australia to continue to support ASEAN’s efforts to promote regional integration, such as the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 (MPAC 2025) and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) Work Plan IV.
“Cambodia would also like to request both parties to successfully implement the ASEAN-Australia Plan of Action 2020-2024 and continue to address common challenges such as public health, the revitalising and boosting of economic growth, and climate change. In addition, Cambodia encourages Australia to continue to assist in strengthening priority sectors such as digital technology and e-commerce, small and medium enterprises, and education and human resource development, especially technical and vocational trainings for women and returning migrant workers, so that they can find new jobs and enjoy better lives,” Samdech Techo Hun Sen said.
Anyway, the Cambodian Premier continued, cooperation in the “Women, Peace and Security-WPS” agenda should be given more attention and strengthened, as a great step towards recognising the role of women in promoting social welfare and socio-economic development. As the ASEAN Chair in the year 2022, Cambodia will continue to pursue this agenda and would like to call for cooperation and supports from Australia.
