Biden calls for Cambodia’s Hun Sen to ‘reopen’ political space in his 37-year rule
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President Joe Biden raised several sensitive issues, including opening up “political space” during a meeting with his host Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the start of Southeast Asian summits here Saturday.
Biden specifically mentioned the country’s election next year, amid uncertainty about how the summit host might try to extend his 37-year hold on political power in the country.
The White House included the specific points of tension in an official “readout” of the two men’s conversation, during a trip when its advisers asked questions about a series of meetings Biden will hold with “autocrats.”
It came after Biden screwed up Hun Sen’s title and mistakenly called him the prime minister of “Colombia” during an opening statement at the ASEAN meeting.
Biden “urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to reopen civic and political space before the 2023 elections,” the official readout said. He also called for the release of activists detained on politically motivated charges, including US-Cambodian dual citizen Seng Theary. President Biden reiterated the United States’ commitment to the Cambodian people and their aspirations for a more prosperous, democratic and independent country.”
President Joe Biden urged Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to “re-open civil and political space,” according to a White House reading from their meeting in Phnom Penh
The activist was sentenced to six years in prison sentence after Facebook posts criticizing Hun Sen and supporting an opposition leader.
Biden also raised a thorny issue in Phnom Penh’s delicate maneuvers to try to balance the interests of Beijing and Washington — both of which are key to its economic and security future.
China is Cambodia’s largest supplier of foreign investment, while the US is the largest export consumer.
“The President expressed his concern about the situation at Ream Naval Base and underlined the importance of full transparency on the activities of the PRC military at Ream Naval Base,” the statement said. reports of a secret deal to allow Chinese military use of the facility.
“President Biden reiterated the United States’ commitment to the Cambodian people and their aspirations for a more prosperous, democratic and independent country,” the statement concluded.
Biden brought up Cambodia-American human rights lawyer Theary Seng and called for the release of ‘activists detained on politically motivated charges’
Cambodian-American human rights lawyer Theary Seng, dressed as Lady Liberty, is arrested by police after being found guilty of treason in her trial before Phnom Penh Municipal Court on June 14, 2022
Cambodian naval personnel are seen on boats moored to a jetty at Ream Naval Base in Preah Sihanouk Province on July 26, 2019 during a government-organized media tour. Cambodia on July 25 dismissed reports of a deal that would allow China to use a naval base as “ill-intentioned” and intended to stir unrest in a country whose public is increasingly uneasy about Beijing’s growing influence.
He also thanked Cambodia for co-sponsoring UN resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The latest dose of diplomatic pressure — administered by the president as part of a high-profile summit that has attracted a host of world leaders, including from Beijing — comes a year after Hun Sen expressed his support for the succession of his eldest son, Hun Manet. .
Hun Manet is a graduate of West Point and is Deputy Commander in Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and Commander of the Royal Cambodian Army. He held his own ASEAN meetings with defense ministers in Hanoi this week.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was questioned en route to Phnom Penh about the president’s series of meetings with autocratic leaders during his trip.
Biden met China’s Xi Jinping and sat down with Egyptian President El-Sisi during this brief stint in Sharm El-Sheikh for an environmental meeting.
“The president was proud and delighted to have the opportunity to meet with the host of that summit, the president of Egypt,” Sullivan said.
‘The second summit is organized by Cambodia. The host of that summit is the Prime Minister of Cambodia, so he’s going to talk to him.’
‘The third summit is organized by Indonesia, the G20. That’s a democratically elected leader, Joko Widodo,” he noted. “So he’ll meet the host of each of the summits he attends… But he’ll work across the board for America’s interests and advancing America’s strategic position and our values. And that is the basis for his decision about every leader he does business with.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is also here for the summit, called on Hun Sen to be “completely transparent” about the naval base at his own meeting with the prime minister in Washington in August, and an official statement contained nearly identical language on reopening of the ‘civil and political space’ for 2023.
“The secretary reiterated the American commitment to the Cambodian people and their aspirations for a more prosperous, democratic and independent country, where all voices are heard and respected and the Kingdom’s autonomy is protected,” the statement said.
Biden and his administration have long championed the practice of raising human rights issues in candid conversations with some of his foreign colleagues.
On Saturday, he did so at an event also attended by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — of two powerful autocratic regimes that unveiled their own sweeping pact to counter the West.