PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen has expressed hope that more countries in the world will participate in returning Cambodia’s lost cultural artifacts. He particularly praised the United States and United Kingdom for recenlty returning a new batch of Khmer artifacts to Cambodia.

The Prime Minister made this statement during the opening ceremony of Angkor Sangkranta on Friday, 14 April 2023, at the Bayon temple in Siem Reap.

The Prime Minister expressed his particular excitement in seeing the return of a group of statues from the same family of gods. He said seeing statues of Lord Shiva and his two sons reunited in Cambodia during an era of peace made him very emotional.