King's stance on ASEAN unchanged

King's stance on ASEAN unchanged

PHNOM PENH (AFP): Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk said yesterday he did not make a volte-face when he endorsed his country's entry into the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) last Friday.

In a clarification released by the palace, King Sihanouk said it was Cambodia that has changed and not himself.

"In truth, Norodom Sihanouk has not changed his position vis a vis ASEAN," the king wrote in response to a news report that he had changed his mind on the issue. "In truth, it is the situation of Cambodia that has changed."

During his earlier years in power in the 1950s and 1960s, the king, who in 1955 abdicated the throne but continued to rule the country, pursued a foreign policy of almost vicious neutrality, playing the great powers of the world against each other in an effort to maintain Cambodia's independence.

During that time he refused to join both the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) and ASEAN, which was founded in 1967.