By partaking Ukraine forward of the upcoming ASEAN and East Asian summits, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has elevated the annual occasion past the standard spherical of handshakes and again slapping and put Cambodia firmly beneath the worldwide highlight.
The summits, which can be adopted by the G-20 meet in Bali and the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, are anticipated to deal with the worldwide financial system and the worst inflation in 4 many years.
Regional commerce, post-COVID-19 restoration, and local weather change would be the bread and butter points, alongside weightier issues of state, particularly the long-running maritime disputes within the South China Sea and the query of what to do with military-ruled Myanmar.
That’s a full plate, however Hun Sen has a wholesome urge for food for world diplomacy.
He likes the worldwide stage and because the area’s longest serving non-monarchical chief, this can be his third and positively final ASEAN summit because the rotating chair of the 10-nation bloc. All ASEAN leaders, other than the pinnacle of Myanmar’s army junta, will attend.
United Nations Secretary-Basic António Guterres and United States President Joe Biden have confirmed participation alongside different ASEAN dialogue companions and people with observer standing, and the federal government right here has mentioned it hoped every of the 25 invited leaders will make the journey.
Thus far, the notable absence is Russian President Vladimir Putin who, because the Cambodian authorities persistently notes, “is but to substantiate” his attendance. And that’s unlikely given Hun Sen’s help for Ukraine and final Tuesday’s on-line assembly along with his counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The pair agreed that Hun Sen will go to Ukraine at “an applicable time,” ship a staff of de-miners to the war-torn nation, and change ambassadors.
Zelenskyy additionally requested to ship a press release through video hyperlink throughout the summit and reaffirmed Ukraine’s want to turn out to be a Sectoral Dialogue Associate, which might be one step away from full Dialogue Associate standing, on par with the likes of the U.S., Australia, Japan, and Russia.
Hun Sen supported the request for a diplomatic improve and provided to mediate peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv on the sidelines of the summits. This isn’t unrealistic on condition that the Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba can even attend the summit for the signing of the Instrument of Accession to the Treaty on Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.
Hun Sen additionally “expressed concern over the current assaults on [Kyiv] and different cities in Ukraine, which have claimed many deaths, accidents and extreme injury to civilian infrastructure, energy outages and water shortages, in addition to critical power and meals crises,” a press release mentioned.
Whereas Russia can be an outdated Chilly Conflict ally of Cambodia, there was scuttlebutt in diplomatic circles for nearly 20 years relating to Hun Sen’s annoyance with Putin over his unwillingness to write down off Cambodia’s money owed of $1.5 billion, incurred after the autumn of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. That debt put an pointless pressure on relations between Moscow and Phnom Penh till it was ultimately re-categorized as an “funding,” an ambiguous time period that didn’t impress.
This isn’t a seismic diplomatic shift, but it surely does matter.
In opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Cambodia was additionally a co-sponsor of final month’s U.N. decision that condemned Moscow’s annexation of 4 Ukrainian areas.
Moreover, Russia is sort of alone in its absolute help for the junta in Myanmar – a coverage which Hun Sen, in the beginning of his time as this yr’s chair, appeared snug with as he started negotiations to normalize relations between Naypyidaw and ASEAN.
These talks finally failed, served up as a humiliation after the junta didn’t launch the Australian economist Sean Turnell, as reportedly promised, after which ignored Hun Sen’s pleas to not execute 4 pro-democracy activists in July, on the eve of the ASEAN International Ministers’ Assembly.
Ukraine is one merchandise on Cambodia’s overseas coverage agenda that syncs neatly with the West and that ought to annoy Moscow. A a lot harsher stance on Myanmar is anticipated as soon as Indonesia assumes the chair for 2023, when Cambodia is anticipated to acquiesce. That must also annoy Putin.
Moscow’s actuality is that its affect in Southeast Asia is now minimal and too typically overrated by Putin’s delusions of Russia as an incredible superpower.
As such, his failure to attend the upcoming ASEAN summit – as seen via the Cambodian prism – is simply one other instance of Russia’s misplaced relevance, extra in order the political dynamics throughout Southeast Asia are quickly being reshaped.