ASEAN leaders held their annual summits in Phnom Penh this weekend, alongside prime ministers and presidents from another dozen or so nations – the first such in-person event since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted more than two years ago.
As expected, there was no shortage of back-slapping and press releases extolling the virtues of the “ASEAN Way” dished out to about 1,500 media people who had converged on the Sokha Hotel on the tip of the Chroy Chongva peninsula, where the Tonle Sap meets the Mekong River.
More than 12,000 security personnel and a fleet of military helicopters were deployed for the summits which also served as a prelude to this week’s Group of 20 (G-20) meeting in Bali and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok.
