Diplomats Continue Writing Letters of Complaint Over Asean

Nearly two months after the 45th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting concluded with ministers failing to issue a joint communique for the first time in the block’s history, Cambodia remains on the defensive, this week disseminating yet another agressive letter to the editor of a regional newspaper. In a letter dated Monday and circulated Tuesday by the state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse, Cambodia’s Ambassador to Singapore Sin Serey lambastes an opinion piece published in Thai newspaper The Nation that accused Cambodia of being heavily influenced by China during the Asean forum over territorial disputes playing out in South China Sea. … The letter comes as Cambodia hosts the first Asean meet since July’s contentious summit, a meeting of economic ministers that observers have been hoping might undo some of the damage from last month. …