Cambodia highlights need for collective efforts to maintain poverty reduction outcomes in region

Phnom Penh (VNA) – Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn has stressed the importance of ensuring sustainable economic recovery and growth for the region, including through the materialization of the ASEAN Travel Corridor Arrangement Framework and operationalisation of the ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergency and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED).

According to a press release by the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Cambodian official made the statement while attending the 54th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and Related Meetings via videoconference on August 2.

He emphasised the significance of ensuring that ASEAN’s engagement with external partners is supportive of ASEAN centrality and in line with ASEAN principles, including the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific (AOIP).

At the meetings, the Cambodian representative said that while ASEAN is grappling with COVID-19 and its severe impacts, which hit the hardest on people who live in the margin, collective efforts are needed to mitigate their difficulties and keep progress in poverty reduction from sliding back.

He also underscored the necessity to differentiate between the exercise of the fundamental rights and freedoms to promote harmony and human progress, and the manipulation of these sacred principles to instigate hatred, social discord, instability, and interference in the internal affairs of others.

Human rights must be understood and approached in a holistic manner without double standards, with due respect to national sovereignty and the principle of non-interference, he stressed./.