DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Clinton pays historic visit to Laos” plus 9 more

VIENTIANE, July 11 (Xinhua) -- In a historic move, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton visited Vientiane, Laos's capital, on Wednesday to improve ties and for talks on key topics.

The visit marks the first time an U.S. Secretary of State has visited the country since 1955, when the Lao civil war was in full swing and the U.S.-backed royalist faction was in power. The current communist government came to power in 1975.

During her short four-hour visit, Clinton met with Lao Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, followed by Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong. During the discussions, both sides committed to further strengthening their relationship, according to a press release from the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Both sides also committed to continuing the search for the remains of U.S. soldiers lost, and for unexploded ordinance (UXO) from bombs dropped, during the Vietnam War.

UXO contamination is a major ongoing issue for Laos, which renders large areas of land unusable and regularly kills and maims those who inadvertently come across it.

Talks between Clinton and the Lao government focused on Laos' part in ASEAN-led regional cooperation, Laos' progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, and both nations commitment to resolve the remaining issues posed by the war.

The Millennium Development Goals are nine goals targeting a range of critical development indicators in the country, due in 2015. Several have been identified by the government as off-track to be reached.

Laos' expected ascension to membership of the World Trade Organization later this year was also discussed. Lao delegates thanked Clinton for her government's support for Laos' expected entry.

After her meetings with Sisoulith and Thammavong, Clinton toured the Cooperative Orthotics and Prosthetics Enterprise (COPE) center. Here she saw the impact of UXO contamination first-hand, as the facility is used to rehabilitate those who have been maimed by UXO. The U.S. government has been active in assisting Laos to remove UXO, donating 68 million U.S. dollars since 1993.

Clinton also visited the Ho Phra keo Museum, one of the oldest and best preserved temples in the Vientiane city. Here she announced that an additional 200,000 U.S. dollars had recently been approved for preservation of the iconic Wat Xieng Thong temple in the World Heritage city of Luang Prabang, as part of the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation program.

Clinton was invited to visit Laos, in exchange for Sisoulith's visit to Washington in 2010. Clinton flew into Vientiane from Vietnam on Wednesday, and later left for Cambodia, as part of a whirlwind world-tour of eight countries around the world.

PHNOM PENH, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Canada is willing to build close ties with Cambodia and other ASEAN member states in politics, trade and investment, said Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird on Wednesday.

The Minister made the remarks during a meeting with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace, Eang Sophallet, spokesman for Prime Minister Hun Sen, told reporters after the meeting.

John said that Canada's International Trade Minister Ed Fast will make a visit to Cambodia next month to promote bilateral trade and investment. Besides, he said Canada will continue helping Cambodia in humanitarian activities, especially demining.

Moreover, Canada has decided to make the contribution of 10 million U.S. dollars to ASEAN for integration work.

Meanwhile, on behalf of ASEAN, Hun Sen expressed his welcome to Canada's intention to broaden relations and cooperation with ASEAN and hoped to see growing ties between ASEAN and Canada in coming years.

John Baird has been visiting Cambodia in order to attend the ASEAN-Canada Ministerial Meeting, the 19th ASEAN Regional Forum, and related meetings, which will last until July 13.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

WELLINGTON, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Health personnel from the New Zealand military have joined a United States Navy vessel to take part in a humanitarian mission to Vietnam, the New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) announced Wednesday.

The eight New Zealand navy, army and air force personnel joining Exercise Pacific Partnership 2012 (Ex Pacific Partnership) included a medical and nursing officer, a dental officer, and environmental health officers, health planners and medics.

The NZDF personnel, traveling on USNS Mercy, would work alongside personnel from other nations, including the U.S., Japan, Canada, Australia, Chile and Malaysia, Major Paul Kendall, officer commanding the contingent, said in a statement.

The NZDF had an ongoing commitment to humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) in the Pacific, said Kendall.

"New Zealand's participation in Ex Pacific Partnership demonstrates our commitment to the Pacific, and helping our Pacific partners to prepare for and respond to natural disasters," he said.

"We have a good relationship with our coalition partners and it 's important for us to work closely to test interoperability so we can perform tasks together in real life HADR situations."

Medical, nursing and dental tasks, as well as health planning and environmental health support activities would be carried out ashore in Vietnam and aboard USNS Mercy.

The New Zealand team would disembark from the Mercy on July 24.

Ex Pacific Partnership was the largest annual humanitarian and civic assistance mission in the Asia-Pacific region, helping to ensure the international community was prepared to respond as a coordinated force when disaster strikes, said the statement.

Ex Pacific Partnership 2012 began in May and had completed missions in Indonesia at the start of June and the Philippines. The mission would finish in Cambodia before the Mercy returned to the United States in September.

PHNOM PENH, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's garment and footwear manufacturers on Wednesday agreed to add 10 U.S. dollars to the monthly wage of the workers in the country's garment and footwear industries.

The agreement between the manufacturers and union leaders was reached under the negotiation of Minister of Labor Vong Sauth.

According to the deal, the manufacturers agreed to provide 7 U. S. dollars a month for house rent or transport fee and another 3 U. S. dollars as attendance bonus for garment and footwear workers.

The wage hike negotiation was made after the unions warned late last month that they would stage a large-scale protest in August to demand salaries hike.

Nang Sothy, co-chair of the Government-Private Working Group on Industrial Relations, said the negotiations were held at the behest of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The country has about 700 garment and footwear factories, employing some 650,000 workers.

With the increased amount, from Sept. 1 onwards, a worker will receive the monthly minimum salary of 73 U.S. dollars plus 10 U.S. dollar attendance bonus.

The garment industry is Cambodia's largest foreign exchange earner. Last year, the sector exported products worth 4.24 billion U.S. dollars, up 25 percent from a year earlier.

PHNOM PENH, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The 13th ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting was concluded at the Peace Palace here on Tuesday, agreeing to further tighten friendship relations and cooperation between the ASEAN and +3 countries, said a senior Cambodian official.

The half-day meeting, chaired by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, was attended by all ASEAN Foreign Ministers and their +3 counterparts (China, Japan and South Korea).

Chinese delegation led by Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Speaking at a press briefing after the meeting, Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state of Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Ministers agreed that since this year is the 15th anniversary of the ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers Cooperation, the Foreign Ministers agreed to carry out activities to commemorate the anniversary including joint cultural performances and other events.

The Foreign Ministers also agreed to nominate Cambodia's Siem Reap city as "The Cultural City of East Asia" as part of marking the 15th anniversary of the ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers Cooperation.

He said the ASEAN Plus three Commemorative Summit will be held in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on November 19, 2012.

In addition, they agreed to speed up the ratification of ASEAN+ 3 emergency rice reserves, he said, adding that so far, six countries including Cambodia have already given the ratification, urging the remaining countries to speed up their ratification.

Besides, the Foreign Ministers exchanged views on regional and international issues, touching on the issue of the Korean peninsula, he said. "The Foreign Ministers had urged all parties to remain calm, exercise utmost restraint and respect the U.N. Security Council resolutions," said Kao Kim Hourn.

On the issue of South China Sea, the ministers had a very briefing talk, he said. The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario just touched on the means to have the effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) towards the Code of Conduct.

Speaking during the 13th ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that since last year, the cooperation between the ASEAN+3 has been continuing to make positive progress, and the scale of the Chiang Mai Initiative has been doubled to 240 billion U.S. dollars.

He added that the cooperation among the 10+3 nations in the fields of education, scientific research, culture and health has maintained in steady progress.

"China feels satisfied with all the achievements between ASEAN and +3 nations," he said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

PHNOM PENH, July 10 (Xinhua)-- China attaches great importance to developing the China-Malaysia strategic cooperative, and will continue to have close cooperation with Malaysia, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said when meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman on the sidelines of ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meetings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tuesday.

China will speed up practical cooperation, step up cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and work for greater development of China-Malaysia relations, said Yang.

China and Malaysia have had frequent high-level contacts, highly productive business cooperation and trade, and expanding exchanges and cooperation in areas such as education, science, technology, culture and tourism, said Yang.

On regional cooperation, Yang said that Malaysia is an important member of ASEAN, has been China's largest trading partner among ASEAN countries for four years in a row, and made important contribution to the growth of China-ASEAN relations.

China will continue to work with Malaysia in political, economic, people-to-people and cultural fields to consolidate the sound momentum of growth of China-ASEAN relations, said Yang.

Anifah Aman said that the government and leaders of Malaysia are committed to growing the friendly relations with China and are satisfied with the development of the relations.

He said that Malaysia believes that China is its trustworthy partner, a growing and strong is conducive to Malaysia, and it will further deepen practical cooperation with China in various fields.

Malaysia appreciates China's positive measures for bilateral and regional cooperation, and will further enhance communication and cooperation in international affairs, in particular, the two sides will have close coordination of positions on issues of mutual interest.

BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) -- China hopes to maintain "positive and cooperative momentum" regarding the South China Sea, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

"China does not want efforts to safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea to be disturbed or damaged," spokesman Liu Weimin told a regular press briefing.

Liu made the remarks in response to a question about discussions of the South China Sea issue at the 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM), which kicked off on Monday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

China has always supported the building of the ASEAN community, as well as ASEAN's leading role in east Asia cooperation, Liu said, adding that China is committed to conducting mutually beneficial cooperation with ASEAN nations.

"We hope the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting will bring about positive results," he said.

During a China-ASEAN senior officials' meeting on Sunday, China and ASEAN countries agreed to carry out the "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" (DOC) in a comprehensive and effective manner, as well as carry out cooperative projects under the DOC framework with the purpose of upholding peace and stability in the South China Sea, said Liu.

He stressed that the AMM is an important platform for enhancing mutual trust and cooperation between concerned countries, but not a proper venue for discussing the South China Sea issue.

Hyping the South China Sea issue is actually to ignore the consensus of countries in the region to promote development and cooperation, he said, noting that the hype aims to damage China's relations with the ASEAN.

Liu said China has maintained smooth and effective communication with relevant countries on the South China Sea issue and is ready to settle disputes with concerned parties through dialogue and consultations.

In response to a reporter's question on the U.S. hope for the AMM to notice the South China Sea issue, Liu said the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region is in the common interest of China and the United States. He said that China is willing to work with the United States to jointly commit to peace and stability in the region.