Cambodian PM arrives in PH for ASEAN summit

FILE: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen arrived in the Philippines on Saturday afternoon to attend the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Summits on November 12 -14. (Photo By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0)

CLARK, Pampanga – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen arrived in the Philippines on Saturday afternoon to attend the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Summits on November 12 -14.

Hun Sen arrived at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga at 1:26 p.m., two hours delayed from his original arrival schedule.

The Cambodian Prime Minister was welcomed by Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Hun Sen, one of the longest serving leaders in the world, has held power for more than 32 years.

Foreign leaders are given arrival honors at Clark airport, with 1,400 students showcasing various cultural performances.

He was the first foreign leader to arrive in the country for the ASEAN summit.

Majority of the meetings will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila.

Apart from Hun Sen and Suu Kyi, other ASEAN leaders will be attending the event: Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

For dialogue partners, the following leaders are confirmed to attend: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, South Korean President Moon Jae-In, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and United States President Donald Trump.