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.