US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will not visit Cambodia this weekend, a US Embassy official confirmed Tuesday, a week after the embassy acknowledged her potential arrival here for a three-day tour following the Asean Regional Forum in Bangkok.
“With everything that is happening in [Washington, DC] her coming was a possibility that just never ripened into a probability,” said the embassy official, explaining Albright will remain in the US for the Middle East peace talks.
Embassy personnel said last week Albright could make a stop here between Bangkok and visits elsewhere in the region.
She had intended to meet with senior government officials, US Ambassador Kent Wiedemann said last week, and would have discussed the Khmer Rouge trial plan that US Senator John Kerry from the state of Massachusetts helped negotiate earlier this year.
Though Kerry was able to break a months-long stalemate between the UN and Cambodia, the trial plan has apparently stalled again as it awaits National Assembly debate. No discussions have yet been planned on the draft law, though Minister Sok An said talks would begin “soon.”
“She has expressed an interest in Cambodia and that interest still exists,” the US Embassy official said, explaining that a future visit by Albright has not been ruled out.
Albright canceled a previously scheduled visit to Cambodia in June 1997 because of security concerns after fighting broke out between bodyguard units loyal to the CPP and Funcinpec
Albright also will not meet her North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun, in Bangkok this week as Mideast peace talks continue at Camp David in the US, according to a US State Department spokesman, Kyodo News reported.
Albright’s deputy, Strobe Talbott has been sent to represent the US, but it was not clear whether he would meet with Paek Nam Sun, The Associated Press reported.
Paek Nam Sun will be arriving in Cambodia on Saturday for a three-day visit.
