Through the US Fox News, Prime Minister Hun Manet continues to tell the world about the Thai army illegally occupying Cambodian land and talks about the Ream Port and the fight against online crime in Cambodia!
(Washington): Through the US Fox News, Prime Minister Hun Manet continued to tell the world three big truths. 1: About the Thai army illegally occupying Cambodian land; 2: About the Ream Port, which is not exclusive to any country; 3: About the fight against online crime in Cambodia!
Prime Minister Hun Manet gave a live interview with the US Fox News with the following content:
Prime Minister Hun Manet: Now that the army has stopped fighting, the Thai army is occupying all this with containers and barbed wire. This is why we say that this occupation is beyond Thailand’s unilateral claim. And this area belongs to Cambodian villages, and now many villagers cannot return to their homeland.
This is different from the joint statement that we have between the two countries, which allows civilians to return. Even the point that after the ceasefire, after the shooting, the troops stay in place and do not move beyond their control of the area. But the expansion of the use of barbed wire and containers to seal off villages, these are some of the things that we urge Thailand to allow our people to return and to start the process of demarcating the border with Cambodia through a joint mechanism that we both agree on. So this is our main point.
Question: If the Thai presence continues to push into your territory, how does Cambodia plan to respond? Under what circumstances will the ceasefire be unsustainable?
Prime Minister Hun Manet: Our position has always been to adhere to a peaceful solution, to peaceful dialogue, because we do not believe that using war to stop a war is unsustainable or practical. This is why we have asked Thailand to go back to the agreements that we have, including the Kuala Lumpur Peace Agreement that President Trump witnessed, which set out a clear conditionality to resolve this issue, because the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia is primarily a territorial dispute. We already know that in the past six months, President Trump played a key role in facilitating and securing the first ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand.
And the ceasefire agreement also involved the chairman of ASEAN, Prime Minister Anwar. So I think President Donald Trump, he has his own goal, which is to see peace and stability. I have spoken to him, he always says that people’s lives are very important. So stopping the war is his own mandate.
Question: Regarding the naval base in Port Ream, Sihanoukville, which was rebuilt with Chinese funds, and in January 2026, the US warship docked there!
Prime Minister Hun Manet: We have a multinational building there, a permanent structure, that way to receive all our visiting partners. There is nothing to hide in this.
So I think to be clear about the actual naval base. So the actual action of welcoming the multinational ship visit, it clearly shows that Cambodia is not using the actual naval base only for cooperation with China.
Question: The State Department has been urging Cambodia to do more to combat online fraud networks. Can you talk about any progress you’ve made there, and are you working with U.S. authorities on this? Prime Minister Hun Manet: We’ve increased our interaction with our partners, especially the FBI, working with our national police and the FBI, working together on transnational crimes, including online fraud. So this is a growing success. We recently cracked a major case involving an tycoon, where we arrested him, and we shut down a large compound. This is a success with the FBI.