Cambodian PM visits Myanmar

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen arrived in Nay Pyi Taw Monday to begin a three-day goodwill visit to Myanmar.

It is Hun Sen's another official visit to the country as a Cambodian leader since 2000.

Accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Nam Hong and Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, Hun Sen is making the trip.

Hun Sen will have talks with Acting Prime Minister Lieutenant- General Thein Sein later after his arrival, official sources said.

Thein Sein, who is also First Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), was named acting prime minister in the absence of Prime Minister General Soe Win, who, 58, reportedly went to Singapore on May 13 for the second time to receive medical treatment after the first which lasted for less than two months since mid-March. Soe Win was said to have been suffering from leukemia.

Hun Sen is expected to call on SPDC Chairman Senior General Than Shwe in the new capital on Tuesday, the sources added.

Hun Sen's Myanmar visit also came after that to the country by Hor Namhong last month.

In October 1996, SPDC Chairman Senior-General Than Shwe visited Cambodia, during which three agreements were signed on tourism cooperation, air services and establishment of sister cities between Bagan (Myanmar) and Siemreap (Cambodia).

Then Cambodian First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh also came to Yangon the same year and another agreement on the establishment of a joint commission for bilateral cooperation between the two countries was also inked.

During Hun Sen's 2000 Yangon visit, an agreement on mutual exemption of visas for holders of diplomatic and official passports was further produced.

Representing Cambodia, Hun Sen attended a Mekong economic cooperation strategy summit of four countries -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand held in Myanmar's Bagan in November 2003.

In April 2005, Soe Win went to Phnom Penh as part of his three- nation tour to three member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Myanmar and Cambodia are not only cooperating in the 10-nation ASEAN as fellow members but also active in the five-country economic cooperation also known as the Ayeyawaddy-Chao Phraya- Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS).

Source: Xinhua