Obama Expected to Visit Cambodia, US Diplomat Says

A US State Department official US President Barack Obama to visit the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh in November and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit in July to attend the Asian Ministerial meeting. The US Embassy, however, said that both visits have yet to be confirmed, and said the State Department official was expressing his “hope” that the high-level visits would take place. Joseph Yun US Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, met with Foreign Affairs Ministry Secretary of State Ouch Borith yesterday.

At a news conference later at the ministry, they briefly discussed the US president’s potential visit to Cambodia. “We expect to have of course, our secretary o state here in July, as well as our president for the [East Asia] Summit. So we have a really exciting year ahead,” Mr. Yun said. He said officials had met to discuss US-Cambodian bilateral relations, the US’ Lower Mekong Initiative donor program and upcoming regional meetings. “The goal of [the meeting] is how do we build our relationship this year in 2012,” Mr. Yun said, adding that officials did not discuss Cambodia’s Lon Nol-era debt of $274 million, which Cambodia wants the US to cancel. As Asean chair, Cambodia plays a leading role in regional meetings in 2012, as it will host the Asean Ministerial Meeting in July – during which foreign ministers from Asean and other nations will meet – as well as the annual Asean Summit in Phnom Penh in November. The East Asia Summit is held right after the Asean Summit and is also hosted by Cambodia as Asean chair. The US has been a member of the East Asia Summit since 2010 and last year Obama became the first US president to attend the summit. Speaking by telephone later, US Embassy spokesman Sean Mclntosh clarified that “both the visits of Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama have yet to be confirmed. “What I understand is that Deputy Assistant Secretary Yun was expressing his hope that the secretary of state and the president will visit.” At the news conference, Mr.Borith said Cambodia expected both visits to go ahead, adding that the meetings would mark a high point in Cambodia-US relations. “President Obama will be at the upcoming top Asean meeting in November in Cambodia. It shows that the relationship between the US and Cambodia is very good,” he said. “We will learn the date soon. This is a matter of security” concerns.