Japan ponders strategic partnership with Cambodia: Cambodian FM

PHNOM PENH, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Japan pledged to study towards the establishment of a strategic partnership of cooperation with Cambodia and to further enhance bilateral ties, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Sunday.
He said the promise was made by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda during a bilateral meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Tokyo, Japan while the premier attended the 4th Mekong-Japan Summit on April 20-21.
"Japan promised to carefully study to raise the level of current friendly relation with Cambodia to a new level of strategic partnership of cooperation in order to push for stronger economic and trade ties," Hor Namhong told reporters at the Phnom Penh International Airport when he accompanied Hun Sen from Tokyo.
He said Yoshihiko Noda also invited Hun Sen to make an official visit to Japan at an appropriate time in the future and Hun Sen said the visit would be made in early 2013.
Hor Namhong said that so far, Cambodia has comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation only with China, which was established in December 2010 between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Hun Sen in Beijing.
Japan is the second largest provider of grants and concessional loans to Cambodia after China. According to the Cambodian government's records, by 2011, Japan had given some 2,000 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for infrastructure development, whilst China had provided about 2,093 million U.S. dollars to the country.