Cambodian, US senior officials meet to promote bilateral ties

Cambodian and US senior officials met here on Monday to further promote bilateral ties and cooperation. The meeting was made between Ouch Borith, secretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Scot Marciel, visiting principal deputy assistant to the United States Secretary of State. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ouch Borith said the meeting was held in a close and friendly talk, focusing on further enhancing the bilateral relations and cooperation in economics and politics as well as other fields. Scot Marciel said Cambodia was a part of his trip to five ASEAN countries, which had taken him to Myanmar and Thailand already and his next legs will be in Vietnam and the Philippines. "My visit to these countries is to catch up on recent events and to talk about where we are in the relationship with all of these countries," he said in a news briefing. He said the consistent policy of the United States for many years has been to support a Cambodia that is peaceful, stable, prosperous and democratic. "We want to build the close relationship with the nation and people of Cambodia," he said. "And, we have an interest in seeing a progress here in terms of democracy, economics, and poverty reduction." During in Cambodia, Scot Marciel had also met with opposition officials, civil society, and business representatives to discuss the political situation in Cambodia after the July's election. "The U.S. position is that we support a stronger democracy in Cambodia. The solution has to be a Cambodian solution," he said. " We are not here to try to impose any solution, but we certainly support efforts to strengthen Cambodia's democratic process and urge everybody involved to continue dialogues." Cambodia held a parliamentary election on July 28. The results showed that the long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party gained the victory, but the longtime opposition leader Sam Rainsy' s party refused to accept the results, claiming serious poll irregularities. Despite a boycott of parliament by the opposition's 55 lawmakers-elect, the ruling party's 68 lawmakers-elect voted on Sept. 24 for the formation of a new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Sam Rainsy has said that the current government is " illegitimate" because it was formed in a violation of the constitution and his party would continue to boycott parliament unless the poll irregularities are resolved. But Hun Sen has defended that his government is "legitimate" since the nation's King Norodom Sihamoni had already given endorsement. The two parties' senior officials will meet on Tuesday to discuss and try to find a solution to the political dispute.