Phnom Penh (FN), Dec. 19 – Cambodia and Indonesia hosted book launching and seminar on “60 Years of Friendship: Moving Forward”, held on Thursday at Rosewood Hotel, Phnom Penh.
The half-day book launching and seminar were presided over by Eat Sophea, secretary of state at Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Mayerfas, secretary general of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia; Sudiman Haseng, ambassador of Indonesia to Cambodia, members of diplomatic corps, and local and international guests.
In her opening remarks, Sophea expressed her great pleasure and honor to participate in today’s book launch and seminar on Cambodia-Indonesia 60 Years of Friendship, which marks the historical journey that the two nations made together over the past 60 years.
“The commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of Cambodia-Indonesia diplomatic ties this year will further consolidate the spirit of solidarity and invigorate fruitful cooperation between our nations, built on the foundation of existing interaction between our two peoples, since time immemorial,” said Cambodian Secretary of State Eat Sophea.
She firmly believed that, “With the shared commitment and concerted efforts of the two Governments and Peoples, Cambodia-Indonesia cordial relations will continue to grow stronger and cooperation between the two nations will not only serve the best interests mutually, but also contribute to making the world a better place for all.”
It is worth recalling that Cambodia and Indonesia have officially established the diplomatic relations on 1959; however, interaction between the two peoples actually dates back centuries ago. The close similarities between Cambodia’s Bakong temple in the Angkor-period and Indonesia’s Borobudur temple attest to much earlier time friendly relationship between the two countries.
Cambodia never forgets the important role Indonesia played as host of the negotiation process leading up to the Paris Peace Accord in 1991, and contributed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to Cambodia as part of the UNTAC operations in the early 1990s, according to Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen recently met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on 20 October 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia to convey his personal wishes and His Majesty Noromdom Sihamoni’s congratulations to the Indonesian president for his re-election at the official inauguration ceremony.
The warm Hun Sen-Widodo relationship have increased people-to-people and business-to-business linkages; and growing cooperation between the two countries across many fields, including economy, trade, tourism, aviation, culture, human resource development and defense.
Cambodia and Indonesia are members of the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. They work closely together to promote common national interests, address regional and global challenges of today, and jointly contribute to peace, stability, security, and prosperity in our region and the world beyond.
=FRESH NEWS
