PHNOM PENH: The ASEAN Secretary-General, Dato Lim Jock Hoi, arrived in Cambodia on Saturday, 15 January, for an official visit that will last until Wednesday, the 19th. During their first meeting on Monday morning, Prime Minister Hun Sen told the ASEAN Secretary-General that ASEAN has a lot of work to do in 2022, and cannot spend time thinking only about Myanmar.
The Minister Delegate attached to the Prime Minister, Kao Kim Hourn, told reporters after the meeting between the Prime Minister and the ASEAN Secretary-General, that Prime Minister Hun Sen said that although ASEAN has a role to help its members, ASEAN still has a lot of other work to be done in 2022. He added that the Prime Minister urged ASEAN to continue to focus on their main work, which this year includes the revitalization of the ASEAN economy, the preparation of the 20th anniversary of the Declaration on the Implementation of the Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), and the Asia-Pacific Initiative, membership of Timor-Leste into ASEAN, and a summit to promote economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, with the participation of international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The ASEAN Secretary-General of ASEAN expressed his support for the remarks and initiatives of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and confirmed that the work assigned by him will be fruitful. Minister Kao Kim Hourn reported that the ASEAN Secretary-General said he was very happy and would like to thank Prime Minister Hun Sen for guiding all the initiatives of Cambodia as the chairman of ASEAN, and in particular, in promoting the implementation of the Five Point consensus related to the situation in Myanmar. He was also quoted saying that he would try to help and think about the implementation of the mechanisms proposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Cambodia took over the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN on the 1st of January, 2022, following in the footsteps of Brunei. After assuming chairmanship, Prime Minister Hun Sen traveled to Myanmar on 7 January to seek a ceasefire in the country, provide aid and open the door for ASEAN special envoys to find a solution for the country’s ongoing crisis. Myanmar's military leaders have thus far agreed on all these points, and Prime Minister Hun Sen has decided to let the ASEAN Foreign Ministers continue to do this work.
The ASEAN Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi is paying an official visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia from 15 to 19 January 2022, to seek ways to further strengthen cooperation and coordination between the ASEAN Secretariat and the relevant ministries of Cambodia during the Kingdom’s chairmanship of ASEAN this year.
