The President of Cambodia’s Senate and ruling Cambodian People’s Party, Mr. Hun Sen, has called on Vietnam to accelerate the completion of the countries’ remaining land border demarcation.

Speaking on June 4 during a meeting in Phnom Penh with Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of National Defence, Mr. Nguyen Tan Cuong, Mr. Hun Sen urged both governments to reach a swift agreement on the outstanding 16 percent of the shared land boundary.

The meeting took place during a three-day official visit to Cambodia by the senior Vietnamese military official.

Mr. Hun Sen said Cambodia and Vietnam’s bilateral relationship remains strong and deeply rooted in traditional friendship, solidarity, good neighborliness and broad cooperation, particularly between the two countries’ armed forces.

He also confirmed that he will personally attend Vietnam’s upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations marking the liberation of the country’s southern region. The visit, he said, will also commemorate the 48th anniversary of his 1977 journey to Vietnam to seek assistance in overthrowing the Khmer Rouge regime.

During the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Tan Cuong reaffirmed Vietnam’s commitment to building a Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument at the National Museum of Vietnam. He said the monument is intended to highlight to both national and international audiences the historic and ongoing closeness between the two nations, especially in military cooperation. He referred to the joint efforts of Cambodia and Vietnam during past struggles against colonial regimes.

The Vietnamese delegation’s visit runs from June 3 to June 6 and includes meetings with Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Commander Vong Pisen, Prime Minister Hun Manet and Senate President Hun Sen.

Meanwhile, opposition figure and former Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker Um Sam An criticised the push to finalise the border without involving the International Court of Justice. Speaking to The Cambodia Daily, he claimed such action would amount to further loss of Cambodian territory to Vietnam.

He urged Prime Minister Hun Manet to submit a request to the National Assembly to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to review the 84 percent of the border that has already been demarcated. He argued that previous demarcation agreements have resulted in Cambodia losing land to Vietnam entirely.

The head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, Casey Barnett, says that while both the United States and China provide financial support to Cambodia, their approaches differ significantly. Washington prioritises grants, while Beijing focuses more on loans.

Writing on his personal Facebook page, Mr Barnett noted that the United States has provided Cambodia with both grants and loans since the 1990s. However, he emphasised that the majority of American assistance has come in the form of donations. While some earlier loans remain outstanding, aid from the US has largely been non-repayable.

In contrast, Mr Barnett said Chinese aid to Cambodia, particularly since the year 2000, has primarily consisted of loans. More recently, Beijing has included an increasing number of grants and equity investments. He suggested this may reflect a shift in China’s approach, potentially aimed at limiting Cambodia’s debt burden.

According to Barnett, Chinese assistance has also included money, weapons, clothing, and engineering support.

A new report released today by the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia states that between 1990 and 2024, the United States provided Cambodia with over 4.5 billion US dollars in aid. In 2024 alone, American assistance totalled around 55 million dollars.

Over the same period, China is reported to have provided more than 11.8 billion dollars in aid to Cambodia, with the majority classified as concessional loans.

Figures from Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance show that by the fourth quarter of 2024, the country’s total external debt stood at over 4 billion dollars. Loans from China accounted for roughly 34 percent of that sum. This makes China Cambodia’s largest bilateral creditor.

Since the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements, Cambodia has received ongoing support from the United States to promote development in areas such as the economy, civil society, and democracy. US aid has supported sectors including agriculture, the environment, food security, public health, and education.

Beyond financial assistance, the United States has also offered Cambodia significant access to export markets. Cambodian exports to the US currently total close to 10 billion dollars per year. In addition, Cambodia has benefited from trade privileges under the Generalized System of Preferences, known as GSP.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior has strongly rejected a report by a US-based think tank accusing the Cambodian government of involvement in transnational criminal activity that poses a threat to global security.

In a statement issued on June 2, the ministry’s spokesperson described the report by the United States Institute of Peace as an attack on the Cambodian government. The report, published on May 16, alleged that senior government officials in the region, including Cambodia, are entangled in criminal networks that have grown increasingly powerful and difficult to dismantle.

The ministry defended its record, stating that Cambodia is working closely with international partners to combat online crime, human trafficking and money laundering. Authorities are also reviewing and amending laws to strengthen legal tools aimed at preventing and suppressing criminal activity.

The spokesperson further claimed that Interior Minister Sar Sokha and his family have no shares, ownership stakes or financial interests in Jinbei Casino, responding to allegations mentioned in the US report.

Titled Policies and Patterns: State-Abetted Transnational Crime in Cambodia as a Global Security Threat, the report detailed how criminal networks, often intertwined with state officials, have become deeply entrenched and increasingly sophisticated. Based on interviews with nearly 100 sources including diplomats, journalists, business people and researchers, the report pointed to Cambodia as a key hub for transnational criminal operations.

The United States has previously taken action in connection with these concerns. In September 2024, Washington imposed sanctions on ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat and several of his business entities, citing their alleged involvement in human trafficking, money laundering, forced labor and online scams.

The Cambodian government maintains that such reports are unfounded and politically motivated. However, the allegations continue to draw international scrutiny, with growing calls for transparency and accountability in the region.

The Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation has called on ethnic Khmer communities in Vietnam to exercise their fundamental freedoms in a peaceful effort to end what it describes as decades of Vietnamese colonial rule and to build a future rooted in freedom, justice, and self-determination.

In a statement issued today, the Federation announced that it will mark what it calls the “76th Anniversary of Kampuchea Krom under Vietnamese Colonialism” with a commemoration on Wednesday. The event is scheduled to take place at the Federation’s human rights and development center in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district.

According to the statement, the ceremony aims to recall what the group describes as historical injustice, referring to the 1949 handover of Kampuchea Krom by French colonial authorities to the Vietnamese government under Emperor Bảo Đại. The Federation says this transfer occurred without consultation or consent from the Khmer population.

It claims that over the past 76 years, ethnic Khmers in the region have endured the erosion of their autonomy, identity, and basic rights. Allegations include systematic discrimination, suppression of cultural expression, and even attempts at ethnic erasure.

The group is appealing to the international community, especially member states of the United Nations, to pressure the Vietnamese government to immediately release detained Khmer Krom human rights defenders. They specifically cite six ethnic Khmer civil society leaders and six human rights activists reportedly imprisoned by Vietnamese authorities.

Yeang Sothearin, chairman of the Public Affairs Committee of the Khmer Krom Youth Committee, told The Cambodia Daily that the commemoration represents not only historical remembrance but also ongoing suffering among Khmer families who, in his words, continue to live under foreign domination.

He added that since 1975, when southern Vietnam came under communist rule, Khmer Krom communities have faced severe repression including arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, torture, and restrictions on religious freedom, language education, and historical study.

On June 04, 1949, the French National Assembly approved the transfer of Cochinchina, also known to many Khmers as Kampuchea Krom, to Vietnamese administration, despite Cambodia’s status at the time as a French protectorate. The decision, made without royal assent, involved 21 provinces, 2 islands, and 1 deep-sea port, covering nearly 67,700 square kilometers, roughly half the area of present-day Cambodia.

Since then, all of those former Khmer provinces have been renamed in Vietnamese.

Two Cambodian journalists have been detained and charged by police with incitement and for causing serious disruption to social security after broadcasting a video online that they said showed victims in a scam compound being tortured.

Human rights group Licadho named the pair as Duong Akhara and Lay Socheat, who work for SA TV and Cambodia Star Daily News 24/24, respectively, saying the video showed a man handcuffed to a metal pole and being tortured.

It said both journalists were known for regularly publishing pro-government content and were detained in Correctional Center 1 prison late last week after their news outlets shared a video they also claimed was shot inside a cyber scam compound in Cambodia.

In full: https://www.ucanews.com/news/cambodian-journalists-held-over-scam-compound-torture-video/107708

Cambodia’s government has approved a draft law that will jail for up to five years anyone denying atrocities, including genocide, committed by the Khmer Rouge.

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• Cambodia government approves updated anti-genocide law

The draft law – which aims to prevent a repeat of the Khmer Rouge’s crimes and provide justice for victims – was approved during a cabinet meeting chaired by the prime minister, Hun Manet, on Friday, the government spokesperson Pen Bona said.

The bill stipulates “the prosecution of any individual” who denies or condones the atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge, according to a government statement.

In full: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/25/cambodia-to-punish-khmer-rouge-genocide-denial-with-jail-under-draft-law