Cambodia’s premier to visit military-led Myanmar next month

By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen plans to pay an official visit early next month to military-ruled Myanmar, seeking to patch up the generals’ battered relationship with Southeast Asia’s regional bloc of nations. Hun Sen’s visit would be the first by a head of government to Myanmar since its military seized power in February. The Jan. 7-8 dates for Hun Sen’s trip were announced Tuesday during a visit by Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin. The military leadership is shunned by many Western governments for the takeover and its consequent brutal repression of opposition to its rule. Hun Sen has been in power for 36 years as head of one of Southeast Asia’s most authoritarian governments.