JAKARTA: Prime Minister Hun Manet’s ASEAN Summit visit kicked off with the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit on September 4. During a speech he made to the forum, he highlighted Cambodia’s continued commitment to peace, political stability and security-a party line reinforced at home and abroad by his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen.

He used the summit as an opportunity to promote his administration’s Pentagon Strategy, a successor to the previous administration’s Triangle and Rectangle Strategy. The strategy has five points: human capital development, economic diversification and competitiveness enhancement, development of private sector and employment, resilient, sustainable and inclusive development, and development of digital economy and society.

He said, “ASEAN should take full advantage of the change in economic architecture to become more resilient, by accelerating inclusive ASEAN digital transformation, enhancing the participation of MSMEs [Small & Medium Enterprises] in the regional and global supply chains, and being more forward-looking and adaptive to emerging issues such as climate change, food security, pandemics and others.

One of the main agenda items for this week’s summit is the 5-Point Consensus on Myanmar, which has been ruled by a violent military junta for two years now. Past discussions on de-escalation have been hampered by a failure of all parties to agree on appropriate action. Prime Minister Hun Manet said, “Cambodia continues to be committed to the multilateral system, rule-based international order and principle of non-interference, in order to protect and promote peace both at home and in the world.”

Prime Minister Hun Manet went on to praise his father’s efforts in being the first ASEAN leader to lead a delegation to Myanmar last year “to advocate deescalating tension and enabling constructive dialogues among relevant stakeholders to achieve enduring peace and national development” and sharing its “Win-Win Policy success drawn from the lessons learnt in Cambodia.” Army general Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in a 2021 coup following a democratic election, was not receptive to advice and his violent reign has continued unhindered by the international community.

The Burmese general sent his congratulations to Prime Minister Hun Manet after his appointment by the king and specifically lauded Cambodia’s respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs.