ASEAN Must Curb Drones Threat: PM Hun Sen
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen attends the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Labuan Bajo on May 10, 2023. Photo by ACHMAD IBRAHIM / POOL / AFP
- By Te Chhaysinh
- June 29, 2023 5:05 PM
PHNOM PENH – PM Hun Sen has called on ASEAN states to take action to regulate unidentified drones after a succession of intrusions by the craft into the country over the past week.
He said Cambodia would take internal measures and diplomatic action by sending a complaint to the UN Secretary-General and ASEAN if the drones continued to violate Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Sometimes it’s a terrorist act,” he said. “ASEAN should join hands to regulate the drones.
“What if instead of threatening Cambodia, it threatened your country?” he said on June 29 while meeting 20,000 factory workers in Ang Snoul district in Kandal province.
“What are you going to do because drones could kill people?
“No one is allowed to pose a threat to our national territory and integrity,” he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the drones but they have been linked to unrest by the ethnic Montagnard tribes in Vietnam, where they have historic grievances with the government. Vietnam says it is not responsible for the drones.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said on June 28, “These actions perpetrated by unidentified armed groups represent a blatant and intolerable violation of Cambodian sovereignty and territorial integrity,
“The Royal Government of Cambodia has exercised its rights to self-defense and taken firm and proportionate military measures to thwart any future incursion into Cambodian airspace.”
The government would take legal and diplomatic action once the origin of the drones was identified.
The PM has sent 500 troops and 200 anti-aircraft weapons to Ratanakiri province alongside Vietnam’s border to shoot down any unidentified drone.
