April 11, 2002

    The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Cambodian counterpart, H.E. Samdech Hun Sen, made the following Joint Press Statement at Phnom Penh today.

    At the invitation of H.E. Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, the Prime Minister of India, H.E. Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, paid a State visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia from 9 to 11 April 2002.

    H. E. Prime Minister Vajpayee and his delegation were greeted very warmly upon arrival by H.E. Samdech Hun Sen and members of the Royal Government of Cambodian as well as by the members of the diplomatic corps.

    During his stay in Cambodia, Prime Minister Vajpayee and members of his delegation were received in a Royal Audience by His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk, the King of Cambodia. The traditional bonds of friendship that have always existed between the two countries, and especially the close friendship between the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk during the early years of the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement were highlighted.

    Prime Minister Vajpayee called on Samdech Chea Sim, President of the Senate. The Prime Minister reiterated the invitation earlier extended to Samdech Chea Sim by the Vice President of India to visit India. The President of the Cambodian Senate said he looked forward to visiting India at an early date.

    The Indian Prime Minister also called on Samdech Krom Preah Norodom Ranaridh, President of the National Assembly. During discussions, they agreed that apart from Government-to-Government contacts, the Parliamentarians of both countries should also establish contact with each other and have regular exchange of visits.

    The two Prime Ministers expressed their satisfaction with the excellent relations existing between the two countries based on their traditional bonds of friendship and cooperation.

    The two sides believed that the visit to Cambodia by Prime Minister Vajpayee would contribute to further strengthening the friendly relations between Cambodia and India. Cambodia would be most pleased when India would attend the ASEAN+India Summit to be held in Phnom Penh in November 2002. Cambodia considered it as a privilege to host such a new development of regional cooperation aimed at enhancing peace, stability and prosperity of the whole region.

    The two sides expressed their appreciation for their ongoing cooperation and mutual support in many areas, in particular in areas where the Government of India shared and continued to share its scientific and technological expertise with Cambodia in human resource development and in other fields of priority and interest to Cambodia. Both sides agreed to continue and to expand their bilateral cooperation in areas including IT, agriculture, culture, human resource development, trade and tourism.

    After the bilateral delegation-level talks, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the signing of three important documents, which should set the stage for closer cooperation between the two countries, namely:

a. Agreement for Conservation and Restoration Work at Ta Prom,

b. The Air Services Agreement,

c. The Agreement on Visa Exemption for holders of diplomatic and official passports.

    The prime Minister of India offered to help Cambodia with the services of Indian judges if the UN decides to withdraw from the Khmer Rouge trial.

    Cambodia and India agreed to explore areas for new initiatives to further deepen the traditional relations, which have been existing between the two countries for centuries. Some of these areas of cooperation are:

a. The ‘Initiative for ASEAN Integration’ launched by the ASEAN last year aims to reduce the development gap between the four later entrants of the ASEAN (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) and the older ASEAN members. India expressed its commitment to support this initiative by taking part in projects beneficial to the CLMV countries.

b. During the visit of Prime Minister Hun Sen to India in February 2000, India had offered a Line of Credit of a sum of US$ 10 million to Cambodia. Both sides agreed to hold discussions to conclude an agreement on the loan, which India indicated that it was willing to extend as per the requirements of the World Bank/IMF.

c. Subsequent to a recent request from Cambodia, India has agreed to also work on the conservation and restoration of Ta Prom, another temple complex in the Angkor Park area. This will cost approximately US$ 5 million over a period of ten to twelve years.

d. Under the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation it was decided to set up a Museum of Traditional Asian Textiles in Siem Reap, the province in which the Angkor Temples are situated. India offered a sum of US$ 1 million to set up the Museum.

e. India offered five computer Internet kiosks in Cambodia to help support the country’ s efforts in promoting computer literacy. These will be set up, as decided by Cambodia, in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Kandal, Takeo, and the Angkor Park area. If so desired, more such kiosks could be set up later. These kiosks would, in the next phase, provide distance-learning facilities, including English and software development.

f. India will offer 10,000 tons of rice for distribution among the people of Cambodia, especially those who suffered owing to unprecedented floods in the River Mekong.

g. Ten Indian experts are to be deputed to Cambodia for three years each under India’s ITEC programme. These experts attached to various Ministries in Cambodia will work on special projects in Information Technology, Agriculture, Irrigation, Water Resources, Crop Improvement, Vocational Training, Human Resource Development, etc.

    Both sides welcomed the Joint Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation established in February 2000, between the two countries to oversee the implementation of development projects that would directly benefit people of both the countries. The first meeting of the Joint Commission is likely to be held very soon.

    The two countries discussed the threat posed by international terrorism and agreed that concerted action by the international community would be required to curb this menace.

    India and Cambodia also discussed the need to cooperate on a bilateral and regional basis in order to tackle problems of poverty, and to manage globalization so as to address the concerns of developing countries.

    Prime Minister Hun Sen highly appreciated the visit of Prime Minister Vajpayee to Cambodia at this juncture as having brought the two nations together.

    On 11th April 2002, the Indian Prime Minister visited the world famous temple of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap province rightly valued as the jewels of the Khmer civilization and cultural heritage of humanity.

    Prime Minister Vajpayee expressed his sincere and deep appreciation to His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk, to H.E. Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister and to the Royal Government and the people of Cambodia for their very warm welcome and hospitality extended to him and to his delegation during their stay in Cambodia.

    Prime Minister Vajpayee extended an invitation to His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Monineath Sihanouk to visit India at their convenience. His Majesty the King thanked the Prime Minister of India for the invitation.

    Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen accepted the invitation extended to him by the Prime Minister of India to visit at an early date.