PHNOM PENH: Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Spokesperson of the ASEAN Summit, Kung Phoak, thanked his team for the great job done and hard work they put into organizing and hosting the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh last month.
Secretary of State Kung Phoak took some time out of his busy schedule to sit down for an exclusive interview with EAC News, where he provided some insight into some of the processes behind the ASEAN Summit.
With 103 outcome documents signed, this year’s ASEAN Summit was one of the busiest, especially for its host, Cambodia. The occurrence of several geopolitical crises around the world during Cambodia’s chairmanship of ASEAN also had an impact on the topics discussed at the Summits.
One of the most important positions during the summit was none other than that of the main Spokesperson, Secretary of State Kung Phoak.
He explained that there were some big preparations needed to be made for his position as the main Summit Spokesperson. He said his team played a big part in making the Summit successful, all working day and night to prepare the numerous documents for approval and signing. He also mentioned that the collaboration between ASEAN member states also contributed to this year’s success.
“When it comes to the preparation of such a major event, it requires a lot of time and effort, and people just look at the outcome documents alone,” he said.
“There are 103 outcome documents, and each [one] can range from 20 or 30 pages, so it means that you have to read a lot. There's so much information that you need to consume, and even more so when you have to summarize it in a way that it can be understood by the public. And many of those documents contain a lot of jargon. I mean, I see, in technical terms, a lot of acronyms and so on, but I think it's very important for me to make sure that when people hear all of this information in the news, they understand what it is about and how they can relate to these outcomes. I think a strong team is extremely important because my staff worked day and night.”
The Spokesperson also mentioned that all documents were prepared in English, as it is the official working language for ASEAN.
“Many leaders do not speak English but we have simultaneous translation [available],” he said. “But when it comes to the official documents, they are all [prepared] in English… we have a strong team [that is] proficient in the English language, so we don't face that big [of an] obstacle.”
“Actually, our Deputy Prime Minister (Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn) has been investing a lot in making sure that we have all the manpower, all the people who can support the hosting of such major events, especially when it comes to drafting key documents,” he further added. “As you can see, there are 103 documents, and as the Chair, we (Cambodia) are the one who is facilitating the consultation process, making sure that all views will be included in the key documents and so on. But then the ASEAN Secretary also plays a very important role in helping us to draft all of these key documents.
“[What] I can say is that through strong commitment from our leadership to build human capital in this ministry, we [did not] face that big [of an] obstacle.”
This is a short preview of EAC’s exclusive interview with the official Spokesperson of the ASEAN Summit.
Secretary of State Kung Phoak speaks more on hot topics like the ongoing Myanmar crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war in the full interview. Stay tuned for more.
