Cambodia, in its role as the host of the 5th Review Conference of the Ottawa Convention, is committed to working hard to convince more countries to sign the mine ban treaty.

H.E. Dr. Ly Thuch, Senior Minister and First Vice President of the Cambodia Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA), who is also the Chair of the Review Conference titled Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine-Free World from Nov. 25 to 29, 2024 in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, highlighted the commitment in a recent interview with AKP.

According to the senior minister, so far, there are 164 countries that are signatories of the Ottawa Convention that prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines.

There are 33 countries that have not yet signed the mine ban convention, including the world’s most powerful countries, like China, Russia, and the United States, he added.

Liaison with some of the countries has been done to convince them to sign the treaty for a joint commitment to achieve a wor
ld completely free of mine.

He continued that in Southeast Asia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, and Vietnam are not signatories to the Ottawa Convention, and so far, Laos is interested in becoming a state party to the convention.

For the Pacific, there are 18 small island nations, three of which are not signatories of the convention, and if they become ones, the whole region will eventually be mine-free.

H.E. Dr. Ly Thuch underlined that for countries with difficulties such as a lack of human resources, Cambodia stands ready to support them so that they can fulfil the requirement to be the signatories of the Ottawa Convention.

Cambodia remains positive, although in the past 15 years, no new country has signed the convention.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse