Cambodia's new premier urges more trade among Southeast Asia nations

Southeast Asian countries should work together to boost economic integration and narrow disparities, Cambodia’s new premier Hun Manet said during his first overseas multilateral event on Monday.

“The promotion of intra-ASEAN trade and investment, in particular, ought to be meaningful and leave no one behind,” the prime minister said at a business forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

He stressed the importance of cooperation and united effort to ensure the timely completion of an improved, forward-thinking, and more pragmatic upgrade to the 2009 ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement.

Hun also called for adhering to the “spirit of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, equality and non-interference stipulated in the ASEAN and UN Charter.”

Saying that his administration aims to help make Cambodia a high-income nation by 2050, he added: “True peace and prosperity only comes from the peaceful settlement of conflicts through dialogue and consultation based on a win-win approach, whereby it is imperative to have the participation and agreement of all parties involved, in a spirit of mutual understanding, setting the well-being of the people as a top priority.”

On the 18-month-old Russia-Ukraine war and ongoing political violence in junta-ruled Myanmar, Hun said Cambodia “strongly believes war cannot end war.”

Hun was elected last month and, at age 45, is the youngest head of government of any ASEAN nation.