PARIS: The Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, has ordered the Minister of Land Management to restore a nearly 100-year-old inscription on Cambodian-French relations to be displayed in front of the French Embassy in Cambodia.

The revelation comes as PM Hun Sen and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a joint press conference in Paris on the night of December 13, 2022.

PM Hun Sen said: "The inscription up to now is 97 years old, but was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in 1977. Our Deputy Prime Minister, the Ministry of Lands and Urban Planning, has asked for permission, and I have already given permission that we will rebuild this statue, which is a symbol of solidarity between France and Cambodia, and put it in front of the French Embassy."

PM hopes that the French President will allow the statue to be displayed in front of his country's embassy in Cambodia.

Cambodian-French relations began with the French colonization of Cambodia in 1863 to protect Cambodia from attempted expansion from Vietnam and Thailand, and France continued to rule Cambodia until Cambodia gained independence in 1953. Despite independence from France, relations between France and Cambodia continued, and France was a country that contributed to Cambodian peace, as we saw on the 1991 Cambodian Peace Treaty, which was signed in Paris, France.