Cambodia calls on ASEAN unity

Cambodia calls on ASEAN unity

PHNOM PENH (AFP): Just over a year after joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Cambodia says its membership has yielded benefits but urges the group to unify its approach to globalization.

"The outcome is positive. We could not allow ourselves to stay outside ASEAN," Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong said in an interview.

On the diplomatic front, Phnom Penh can pride itself on having helped persuade North Korea to join the group's security forum, thanks to warm relations between King Norodom Sihanouk and the reclusive state.

However, Cambodia's entrance into the Southeast Asian "family" on April 30, 1999, was not all plain sailing. It should have joined in July 1997, at the same time as Myanmar and Laos, but the armed conflict that broke out when Hun Sen ousted his royalist rival Prince Norodom Ranariddh from power forced a delay.