First of all, I'd like to respectfully thank His Majesty the Sultan of Negara Brunei Darussalam for the important address that His Majesty has graciously given, at the opening ceremony this morning. It is an honour, for me to be able to speak to you today at this distinguished gathering of the Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asia, Nations which the Kingdom of Cambodia is attending for the first time in its capacity as an official observer. Through You, and Your able leadership, Your Royal Highness, I would like to thank the ASEAN Foreign Ministers for their warm welcome of Cambodia to this Conference, and to the organizers for their excellent arrangements. I would like also to warmly congratulate His Excellency Ali Alatas Foreign Minister of Indonesia for taking the vice-chairmanship of this august gathering and for his assuming of the next chairmanship of the ASEAN Standing Committee. I would like also to armly congratulate the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as the seventh member of ASEAN.

I wish also to express my deep appreciation for the active support given by His Excellency the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dato 'Ajit Singh and his distinguished team to the process of getting Cambodia into the family of ASEAN initially as an Observer. The world around us changes quickly. If anyone had predicted five years ago that I would be participating in a meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers as an observer, speaking for a united Cambodia which ,as working hard towards seeking full membership of ASEAN, I am not sure that I would have believed them. It would have taken a great leap of imagination to have envisaged the Paris Peace Accords, the successful United Nations

intervention in Cambodia, the democratic general elections and the formation of the Royal government under the guidance of our beloved monarch, His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah NORODOM SIHANOUK VARMAN. Even more, it would have been difficult to credit that the three countries of the Mekong Basin, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam would have been on the verge of joining ASEAN. It has proven to me that o idea should be rejected just because it does to sound immediately feasible. I look forward, for example, to the day when our brothers and sisters from Myanmar can join with us to fulfill the dream of a united Southeast Asia, or the ASEAN Ten, as the founders of this Association term it. Indeed, within the last couple of weeks, we have seen very encouraging signs that Myanmar may well be moving towards this end.

During a recent visit to Cambodia, one of the distinguished founding fathers of ASEAN the former Foreign Minister of Malaysia, His Excellency Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie, told me that he thought about regional organization in terms of the bamboo plant which is so prevalent and widely-used in Southeast Asia. As he put it, one bamboo stem, by itself, has no particular strength and can be easily broken. A clump or stand of bamboo, however, becomes a formidable barrier and can withstand the most ferocious storms. He also noted that while the little bamboo shoots look up towards the sky as they rapidly increase their height, the tallest bamboo always curves over, looking downwards. I was inspired by this metaphor, appreciating the benefits to Cambodia in belonging to a strong regional Organization, that is, the clump of bamboo. I can also imagine cambodia as a new young shoot striving up towards the sun. We have a long way to go in terms of training and expertise for our officials before we can hope to seek full membership of ASEAN. We also need to think through all the difficult implications of a tariff-reduction regime. But it is comforting to remember that the tall bamboo, the original ASEAN Six, are looking down towards us to help us in our growth.

All the existing full members of ASEAN have offered Cambodia assistance of various kinds making our preparations to move towards seeking full membership of ASEAN. Fifteen of our officials are currently in Malaysia obtaining diplomatic training on ASEAN matters in Kuala Lumpur. Eighty-five others will be undergoing English language training in Singapore over the next two years with the backing of Canada. Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippine and Thailand have also offered training as has the ASEAN Secretariat itself. Cambodia appreciates all these offers of assistance and will willingly take them all up. We wish to seek full membership as soon as we believe that we are adequately prepared.

There are. many other issues, of course, in Cambodia's path to membership of ASEAN. One of the principal features of the Association is that its members all have strong and growing economies. Cambodia's economy is currently still weak after two decades of war. Our Government is working hard, with the expert advice of the IMF, the World Bank, the Asia, Development Bank and the United Nations to restore our economic and social infrastructure, reinforce investor confidence and overcome the various constraints to development, including the effects of the vicious cycle of the poverty trap, land mines and an insurgency. But we still have a long way to go. The true

prosperity required for Cambodia to take its seat as an equal amongst the dynamic economies of Southeast Asia must derive from an authentic expansion of the Cambodian economy. It cannot simply be aid-led as at present. Exports must increase, and the Government is taking all possible steps to stimulate export-oriented industry and endeavor. Preferential access to the booming markets of the nations of ASEAN and its dialogue partner., would be exactly the sort of pump priming which Cambodia would require. This is a plea from a small "bamboo shoot" to the tallest of our regional "bamboo stems".

In returns for trade and technical operation within the region, Cambodia can no,, offer the region increased political stability. It is only a short, while ago that the problems of Cambodia ,as the main agenda item in all meetings such as this n.. Cambodia was a source of regional debate and concern for two decades. But, no longer. The Royal Government of Cambodia, with the assistance of it friends and neighbors, is determined to ensure national stability and resilience, contributing therefore to the strength of our sub-region. With the other sub-regional nations represented here, Cambodia looks forward to the day when the whole of Southeast Asia can be declared a Zone of Peace, Freedom and eutrality, and perhaps also a nuclear-free -one. Cambodia believes that it has assisted in this process in its recent accession to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. We look forward to the prosperity and progress which we also believe must accompany this stabilization process.

I would like to close my remarks by thanking our host, the distinguished Chairman, and the Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for their warm reception of Cambodia in their midst as an observer at this significant, high-level meeting. Cambodia acknowledges the honor, and accepts the responsibility, of playing a constructive role in our subregion, which we understand is the precondition of our presence here.

Thank you.