The Diplomat

One of the less heralded recent aspects of the COVID-19 story in Southeast Asia has been Cambodia’s remarkable success in vaccine distribution. As of September 6, just over two-thirds of the country’s population had received at least one dose of vaccine, while 53 percent were ...

In August, two local Cambodian organizations, Licadho and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) published Collateral Damage: Land Loss and Abuses in Cambodia’s Microfinance Sector, a report about the dangerous growth of the country’s microfinance sector. It spotlighted an issue that researchers have been warning about for years. A report ...

Last week, Myanmar’s de facto leader and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi paid her first visit to Cambodia in her current capacity. The trip spotlighted the ongoing state of ties between the two fellow Southeast Asian states amid wider domestic and foreign policy developments. Cambodia ...

Cambodia’s foreign policy has seen remarkable improvements after 1993 when the country held its UN-organized national election. The Cambodian government’s efforts to integrate Cambodia into the region and the world have resulted in Cambodia’s membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1999 ...

In a nationally televised speech after the dissolution of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen declared that “the government will commit to protecting the multiparty democracy process.” Indeed, 20 parties have submitted applications to compete in this year’s national ...

Cambodia and Los have again agreed to work together to resolve the issue of their disputed border area. This time, two countries decided to set up a coordination mechanism at the departmental level to facilitate the work, while seeking more frequent meetings between the board committees of ...

This week, more indications surfaced that Cambodia and Thailand were moving towards opening a new international border checkpoint. Though the development was largely overlooked, it bears watching within the broader context of a longstanding effort by both sides to jointly manage their shared border despite ...

Violence in Cambodia has escalated in recent months with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s attempts to quash competition ahead of the upcoming elections on July 29, 2018. Security and surveillance measures have been strengthened, media outlets have been closed down, protests have been met with violence and mass ...

On January 28, Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh reportedly confirmed that China would provide Cambodia with a new round of military aid. The report comes as the two countries are looking to boost their defense ties in 2018 as they commemorate 60 years of their ...

This week, media outlets began reporting that China and Cambodia would be holding the next iteration of a military exercise in March as both countries commemorate the 60th anniversary of their ties this year and the Cambodian government heads to elections in the summer. The ...

Estimates suggest that 0.38 percent of Cambodians have contracted TB, an alarming statistic for a country still recovering from decades of conflict. This rate shows an improvement from the early 2000s, when up to 1.5 percent of Cambodians had the disease. Even so, villagers who live far ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit India on January 24 to attend the India-ASEAN commemorative summit, which celebrates last year’s 25th anniversary of Indian-ASEAN dialogue relations. He will also join other nine ASEAN leaders as chief guest at the India’s Republic Day. Hun Sen is likely ...

Cambodia’s former opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s reverence for political change is exceeded only by his reverence for himself as the instigator of it. That may be why, this weekend in the United States, he launched the Cambodia National Rescue Movement (CNRM), a new body that is ...

Cambodian forests, some of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, are vanishing fast as a result of the Vietnamese, Chinese and Cambodian political interests. Cambodia has one of the largest deforestation rates in the world. Forest Trends, an influential organization with a mission to conserve ...

The first rainfall this year did not arrive until early June to Pursat, a province located in the northwest of the country, where land looked bare and thirsty at the height of the planting season. The devastating drought, which the government has described as the ...

On March 25, China and Cambodia inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in science and technology. The MoU, valid for 3 years, will see the Chinese side train Cambodian officials in science, technology and innovation. ...

Cambodia is lagging behind its target to achieve nationwide electrification by 2020, the head of the country’s electricity regulator warned Tuesday. ...

Surveys are rare in Cambodia and opinion polls indicating which way the electorate intends to vote are even rarer. That partially explains why so many other commentators failed to predict the hefty swing against Prime Minister Hun Sen at the last national poll. ...

On November 16, the United States and Cambodia launched an annual military exercise with an opening ceremony held at the Royal Cambodian Ream Navy Base in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. ...

China and Cambodia agreed to boost their military ties following a meeting between their defense ministers on November 6 in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Though specifics of the assistance remain unclear, Banh, who is also a deputy prime minister, indicated that it includes telecommunications ...

Cambodia needs a genuine “culture of dialogue” between its political parties to avert a descent into crisis, Monovithya Kem, the daughter of deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha and a spokeswoman for the country’s opposition party, told The Diplomat Tuesday in an exclusive interview in Washington ...

This week, senior peacekeepers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Phnom Penh for the 3rd ASEAN Peacekeeping Centers Network Meeting. ...

A community-based HIV testing program is the first of its kind in the region. While this peer-provided HIV counselling and testing has increased the number of people tested from key populations, it has not detected a significant number of new HIV cases. In 2014, there ...

This week, Indian warships visited Cambodia and Thailand as part of a two-month long operational deployment in surrounding waters in pursuit of India’s ‘Act East’ Policy. ...