A leaked recording of a June 15 conversation between Senate president Hun Sen (left) and Thai Prime Minister Paetongtar Shinawatra has gone viral on social media. Supplied
A recording of part of a June 15 telephone conversation between Senate president Hun Sen and Thai Prime Minister Paetongtar Shinawatra was leaked this morning, with the two discussing ways to ease the tension at the borders, especially lifting border crossing restrictions.
Notably, the leak follows an indirect exchange of words between the Thai prime minister and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet. Paetongtar accused the Cambodian leadership of “unprofessionally” using Facebook to conduct politics, comments which drew a hard response from Manet on June 17.
The 9-minute leaked conversation was a part of a more than 17 minute conversation, and went viral on social media this morning. During the conversation, Paetongtar explained that the restriction at the border was driven by the Thai military, not government level decisions. She noted that she was facing pressure domestically.
In response, Hun Sen told her that Cambodia only wants Thailand to lift all recent changes to the border crossing closing hours and will only respond to Thai actions. If the Thai side re-open the border crossing hours to the original timetable, Cambodia will not restrict the import of Thai fruit and vegetables.
Hun Sen noted that the audio was recorded in order to avoid any misunderstanding or misrepresentation, explaining that it was necessary to record the conversation for the sake of transparency, including for internal Cambodian purposes.
“I have since shared the audio recording of the with approximately 80 individuals, including members of the party’s standing committee, Senate working groups, National Assembly teams, the foreign affairs task force, education and outreach units, border affairs groups and members of the armed forces,” he said.
“Among these individuals, it is possible that someone disapproved of the Thai prime minister. A few hours after our conversation, the Thai leader publicly accused the Cambodian leadership of conducting ‘unprofessional’ politics and engaging in political activity via Facebook, an action that contradicts her earlier words,” he added.
Although he claimed the audio was leaked, he said he was prepared to release the entire tape.
“If the Thai side wishes to have the full recording, I am prepared to release the 17-minute and 6-second audio in its entirety,” he said.
