Cambodia borrows France’s map to verify border demarcation

Cambodia will organise a ceremony on September 3 to receive a map it is borrowing from France to compare with the official one it is using in border demarcation with its neighbours.

According to the September 1 press release of the Office of the Council of Ministers, the event will be chaired by Cambodia’s coordinating committee on receiving and checking maps, whose Chairman is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Nam Hong.

Attending the event will be representatives from the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the FUNCINPEC Party, the Senate and the National Assembly as well as the press.

The French Government’s lending of the map is in reply to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s request on August 6 to borrow the Bonne map that defines the borderline between Vietnam and Cambodia from the UK, the US and France.

On August 21, UK Prime Minister David Cameron replied that no original map of Cambodia as requested by PM Hun Sen was found, but London agreed to provide Cambodia with three maps issued by the Indochina geography service from 1933-1953.

On August 20, Cambodia also received a map from the United Nations. The verification’s outcomes revealed that the map that the Cambodian Government is using in determining its border with Vietnam is the same as the one preserved by the UN since 1964.

The CNRP had previously accused the Cambodian Government of using a map incongruent to the one preserved by the UN. A number of the CNRP members organised demonstrations gathering thousands of people at common border areas and even caused violent conflicts at a border marker in Svay Rieng province of Cambodia on June 28.

Cambodian police arrested opposition senator Hong Sok Huar on August 15 after PM Hun Sen accused him of treason for posting on social media a document distorting the 36-year-old border agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam.-VNA