Cambodia’s economy is booming. Federal President Steinmeier is the first German head of state to visit the country. He also wants to address critical issues such as the protection of human rights.
It is extremely rare for Frank-Walter Steinmeier to travel to a country he has never been to on business. After all, two times four years as Foreign Minister and now around six years as Federal President have allowed him to get around the world. But in all those years he has never been to Cambodia, a country that does not exactly correspond to German ideas of free democracy.
What’s more, the Southeast Asian country has never had a federal president – and neither has there been a federal chancellor. The Office of the Federal President says that Steinmeier is doing “basic diplomatic work” with his visit, which began yesterday.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for almost four decades, and according to experts, freedom of expression, assembly and association is restricted. The opposition is being obstructed to the best of their ability. Today Steinmeier wants to hold political talks in the country. His program includes talks with the government – but also with the opposition.
dependence on China
The fact that he is meeting with the head of state in the capital Phnom Penh also has a strong reason for the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. This has made Germany painfully aware of its energy dependency on Russia, which goes hand in hand with an even greater and increasingly critical economic dependency on China. Since then, the motto has been to diversify relationships, i.e. to position oneself more broadly. Politically, that means cultivating old friendships again and looking for new allies.
Steinmeier is now traveling to countries in China’s neighborhood for the third time within a year. Last year he visited Singapore and Indonesia as well as Japan and South Korea. So now Cambodia and Malaysia. According to the Office of the Federal President, political relations with both Asean states are below average. This is about to change.
The economic connection with the dynamic region should also become closer, especially with Cambodia. Almost 1000 German companies are already active in Malaysia. According to the German Foreign Trade Agency (GTAI), bilateral trade with Malaysia grew strongly in 2022 and, at a volume of USD 19.6 billion, was well above the level before the corona pandemic. This makes Malaysia Germany’s most important trading partner among the ASEAN countries. Its exports to Germany, worth $13 billion, were twice as high as its imports, worth $6.5 billion.
The brutal traces of the Khmer Rouge
Cambodia is far from that. No wonder: the terror of the Rouge Khmer from 1975 to 1979, which murdered almost the entire intellectual elite of the country and completely devastated the infrastructure, left deep scars in the country. This then continued with years of guerrilla warfare following Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia. It didn’t end until 1999.
In terms of freedom of the press, Cambodia ranks 142nd out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders global ranking – even countries like Somalia do slightly better. If more proof was needed in terms of freedom of expression, Hun Sen provided it shortly before the arrival of the Federal President by revoking the license for “Voice of Democracy” (VOD), one of the country’s last independent media outlets. Steinmeier now wants to meet VOD officials in Phnom Penh today, as well as opposition leader Kem Sokha, who has been politically neutral since 2017. He is awaiting his verdict in a trial for alleged high treason.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
