Vietnam Rejects Social Media Comments against Cambodian Senate President

Vietnam does not support the provocative and divisive comments supposedly made by certain Vietnamese on the social media accounts of Cambodian Senate President, Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, VNExpress International quoted the Vietnamese foreign ministry as saying on May 23. "The fact that some accounts, supposedly originating from Vietnam, have expressed their personal opinions on social media recently does not represent the stance of the Vietnamese government and people," said spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, Ms. Pham Thu Hang. The spokeswoman was responding to inquiries regarding Vietnam's stance on Cambodia's request for cooperation in order to investigate certain social media accounts, supposedly belonging to Vietnamese citizens, which posted inappropriate statements on the accounts of Samdech Techo Hun Sen. "We do not agree with the opinions and comments, which are provocative and hurt the relations between the people of Vietnam and Cambodia. They have also per sonally offended leaders of the two countries," she added. "We believe that Vietnam and Cambodia will continue to cooperate closely on the sharing of information in several fields, including the Funan Techo Canal project as well as studies on the project's trans-border impacts," Ms. Pham Thu Hang said. Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on May 16 he had advised Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet, to begin construction on the Funan Techo Canal project, adding that the project would help improve fisheries, control floods and develop tourism for the Cambodian people. According to the project's feasibility study, the US$1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal project is 180 kilometres long and 100 metres wide upstream and 80 metres downstream with two navigation lanes. The construction would take around four years to complete. The canal will link Prek Takeo of Mekong River to the sea in Kep province crossing four provinces: Kandal, Takeo, Kampot and Kep with a total of 1.6 million people living on either side of the waterway. Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse