Phnom Penh (FN), Oct. 28 – Cambodia welcomes Russia’s commitment to fighting against terrorism and transnational crimes, particularly in the ICT and cybersecurity areas, Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen said at the 4th ASEAN-Russia Summit held Thursday via videoconference.

“Cambodia would like to request Russia to provide further assistance, including necessary equipment to combat organized crimes.”

The premier would like to represent ASEAN to warmly celebrate the 30th anniversary of the close dialogue relations. Cambodia and Russia are also celebrating the 65th anniversary of friendship and bilateral relations.

“Cambodia would like to seek Russia’s assistance to help further advance the negotiation for the Cambodia-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Cambodia would also like to express our gratitude to Russia for supporting Cambodia’s human-capacity building, and request that Russia consider exploring more opportunities for our specialists to continue their studies and participate in training courses, especially in the fields of science and technology”, the premier added.

“As a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations (SCO), Cambodia attaches high importance to strengthening ASEAN-SCO Relations and supports Russia’s interest to enhance this relationship to a new height. In line with this, we intend to look into the possibility of inviting the SCO Chair as the guest of ASEAN to attend the 41st ASEAN Summit under Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2022.”

Samdech also thanked Russia for its assistance in offering training courses on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes to experts from ASEAN member states and encouraged Russia to further contribute, as well as looked forward to Russia’s support for the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, as well as the consideration of the possibilities to engage in other ASEAN’s priority areas of cooperation.

“On enhancing economic cooperation, ASEAN and Russia shall fully implement the revised ASEAN-Russia Trade and Investment Cooperation Roadmap and ASEAN-Russia Trade and Investment Cooperation Work Programme 2021-2025 in order to boost trade and investment opportunities in the spheres of food and agriculture, transport, energy, tourism, and MSMEs.”

Prime minister Hun Sen also highly appreciated Russia’s engagement with the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) and welcomed the project proposal of Innovations for Smart and Sustainable Cities in ASEAN and Russia.

“Concurrently, we are pleased that ASEAN and Russia have agreed to elevate our tourism consultations to the ministerial level.”

“On socio-cultural cooperation, ASEAN would like to thank Russia for providing training courses for health specialists from ASEAN member states between 2019-2021, and we would like to encourage Russia to continue support in this area, as well as other human resource development within the region,” the premier added.
=FRESH NEWS