Phnom Penh, 17 February- Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo Albert received a warm welcome when she arrived in Phnom Penh from Bangkok yesterday to start her official visit to Cambodia.  The Secretary was met at the Pochentong International Airport by Undersecretary of State Sun Saphoenn of the Foreign Ministry and Embassy officials led by Ambassador Voltaire T. Gazmin.

Secretary Albert is on a five-day, 3-nation swing of ASEAN countries as required of new Foreign Ministers.  Her first official activity in Cambodia was to call on Samdech Cea Sim, Acting Head of State and President of the Senate.  He is also the official caretaker of the government in the absence of HRH King Norodom Sihanouk.

In a meeting that lasted almost an hour, the Secretary conveyed the warm felicitations of the Filipino people to the Cambodians and expressed the hope that relations between the two countries will continue to flourish in the coming years.

“The Philippines looks forward to continued cooperation with Cambodia and would like to see an even more active people exchanges in various fields to strengthen our bonds of friendship and kinship,” Secretary Albert said.

“One way of increasing people to people contacts is to strengthen the level of cultural cooperation by the two countries.  As fellow members of ASEAN, we should support the initiative to fortify the socio-cultural community of our regional organization.  Accordingly, our people should learn about the other’s respective culture to promote a better understanding and appreciation of each other and to foster goodwill and cooperation,” she added.

Cambodia became the 10th and newest member of the ASEAN in 1999.  Under the framework of the ASEAN integration plan, Cambodia has been the recipient of several bilateral and third country training programs and assistance from other member states.  An example of this assistance is the rural Development Program (RDP) where the Philippines has been sending agricultural experts to provide Cambodians with the technical know how in the field of vegetable growing.  The assistance program has received positive results and appears to complement the technical requirements of Cambodia, where eighty percent of the population is composed of farmers and rural workers.  Understandably, the Cambodian government ahs continued to push for greater agricultural cooperation with its neighbors, including the Philippines.

Before concluding her courtesy call, Secretary Albert invited Samdech Chea Sim to attend the 12th International Parliamentary Union (IPU) Meeting to be hosted by the Philippines in April 2005.

“We would like Cambodia, like our other ASEAN friends, to be present in this Congress and to participate actively in the deliberations of this international organization of parliaments and legislative leaders worldwide,” she added.  END