Cambodia, France Pledge to Strengthen Cooperation Toward Strategic Partnership

PHNOM PENH — Sept. 16, 2026: General Vong Pisen, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, received Major General Stephane Richou, head of the French security and defence cooperation mission in Cambodia, at the High Command Headquarters on Wednesday morning.

During the meeting, General Vong Pisen praised the steadily growing relations and cooperation between Cambodia and France, noting that both sides are preparing a roadmap to elevate ties toward a strategic partnership.

He recalled France's role in Cambodia's peace process through the Paris conferences, which led to the signing of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, as well as French support for Cambodia's development in many fields.

On defence, the Commander-in-Chief thanked the French military for training Royal Cambodian Armed Forces personnel through scholarships and numerous courses, particularly for UN peacekeeping missions.

He expressed Cambodia's intention to further expand military cooperation in human resource training, exchange visits and information, counter-terrorism, cybersecurity, transnational crime, human trafficking, narcotics and technology-enabled fraud, as well as humanitarian work, disaster relief, peacekeeping, cooperation between service branches, ship visits and joint exercises.

General Vong Pisen also briefed the French side on the situation along the Cambodia-Thailand border, reaffirming Cambodia's position of resolving border issues peacefully, based on international law and existing bilateral agreements, and upholding the principle that borders must not be changed by force.

He thanked France for its support for a ceasefire and efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Cambodia-Thailand border conflict.

In response, Major General Richou thanked the Cambodian side for the information on the border situation and said he would convey it to the French Ministry of Defence. He also praised the Cambodian military's capability in countering mines and unexploded ordnance, which he said could serve as experience to share with ASEAN countries.

Major General Richou assessed Cambodian military trainees who studied in France positively, saying they had demonstrated French-language ability and brought pride to Cambodia.

The upcoming visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Cambodia was also raised as an opportunity to further strengthen friendship and relations between the two countries and to advance efforts to elevate Cambodia-France ties toward a strategic partnership.

Source: High Command Headquarters of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces

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Reported by The Khmer Today