Two days after returning from a weekslong trip to Europe, opposition leader Sam Rainsy was set last night to leave Cambodia once more for a two-week trip to Mongolia, Japan and South Korea.
“I am leaving tonight at around midnight. It’s for a number of meetings,” Mr. Rainsy said Thursday, explaining that he would attend meetings of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats in Mongolia before going to Japan to meet lawmakers and Foreign Ministry officials.
“We will mainly discuss the election process and the assistance that Japan has committed themselves to providing, and what our concerns are. But on the whole it will be a positive message.”
Mr. Rainsy said he would then meet with some of the 30,000 Cambodians living in South Korea before returning to Cambodia on November 16.
He defended his decision to take another trip amid the current political turbulence, saying that his presence in the country would change little, and that the trip to Japan was an important step toward electoral reform.
“The only hope for Cambodia is to have credible elections. That’s why everything is centered on the election process,” he said.
