Address at the “15^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Brigade E70 of the Royal Cambodia Armed Forces”

October 13^th, 2009

Excellencies, Generals, Military Officers and Privates of the RCAF,
Excellencies, Oknhas, Ladies and Gentlemen National and International Distinguished Guests,
Lecturers, Students and Dear all the Compatriots!

On the 15^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the RCAF’s Brigade E70 and on the occasion of the inauguration of the new buildings, my wife and I would like to convey our warmest congratulation to Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished national and international guests as well as all the military officers and privates of the Royal Cambodia Armed Forces; moreover, may this day obsess in the heart of all members of the RCAF, especially the Brigade E70, in the cause of protecting and serving the nation, the religion, the king, and the people. On this special occasion, my wife and I would like convey our deep appreciation and sincere respect to all the RCAR’s military officers and privates who are fully committed to the Royal Government’s policies, firmly comply with the Constitution as well as laws and regulations, and have transformed yourselves into the armed forces with strict order, honor and dignity; without a doubt, you are the brave children of Cambodia who dare to make the ultimate sacrifice in fulfilling your duties. Along with this, I would also like to convey my sincere indebtedness to the compatriots whose children, husbands and wives have joined all kinds of armed forces in the cause of national protection, to the families of disabled and killed soldiers, and ex-soldiers.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to show my admiration to our brave soldiers who are protecting the sovereignty of our beloved country, working hard to ensure peace for the people, and fulfilling their international duties within the UN’s framework. 

For 15 years, the Brigade E70 and other armed units have made a great contribution to the protection of national sovereignty and security of the people, and to the prevention of social unrests and terrorism. Along with this, I also note many physical infrastructural achievements with the Brigade’s base, such as the headquarters and other buildings, both inside and outside the base. According to the report of H.E. Major Gen. MAO SOPHANN, the Brigade E70 has its own development plan for promoting the living standard of all members of the Brigade such as the establishment of hospital, eatery, and farm; moreover, the Brigade has helped farmers with rice cultivation and involved in rescue missions during natural disasters. Taking this opportunity, I would like to commend the Brigade for these achievements and, in addition to its core duties, encourage it to continue these activities to join the Royal Government’s bid to improve the living standard of its soldiers and people. 

In particular, the Royal Government must be committed to strengthening peace, stability, security, and social order. Cambodia has now enjoyed the fruit of peace and territorial integrity, thanks to the Royal Government’s “Win-Win” Policy, pro-growth economic agenda and poverty reduction strategy. Cambodia has managed to integrate itself into the region and global environment, and through the equal status of its membership in various organizations, it is playing a significant role at sub-regional, regional, inter-regional and global level. The restoration of long-lost peace, territorial integrity and political stability allows us to engage in reform of all sectors to build human resources, institutional capacity and socio-economic infrastructure, and create an environment conducive to investment.

Along with this, the Royal Government is pushing for the reform of its armed forces, including the count of the number of its soldiers, to strengthen the quality, promote patriotism, protect the Constitution and ensure rule, order and capacity within the forces to allow them to fulfill their duties effectively under all circumstances. Along with this, we have transformed the RCAF into a united force with adequate soldiers and capacity for protecting the national independence, ensuring land, water and air sovereignty, protecting the authority and people, and taking part in national development and recue missions. In this spirit, the Royal Government has taken measures to provide social land concession to retired and disabled soldiers and the families of killed soldiers. This shows our respect and indebtedness to all members of the RCAF for their sacrifice by paying particular attention to help them with materials and finance, such as allowance, assurance of dignity and respect for them. 

Along with that, the Royal Government has supported the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces to actively participate in the international community cooperation in protecting and preventing all acts of terrorism and subversion inside and outside the country.  In this sense, the Royal Government firmly adopt the policy of not allowing any political organization and illegal militant group, who intent to stage instability in Cambodia or use Cambodian territory to act against the neighboring countries. 

Moreover, the Royal Government has been fully supporting to develop and modernize the national defense sector to be more sufficiently capable, conforming to the situation and requirement of the fast growing era in order to promote our Royal Cambodian Armed Forces to fulfill their duties more effectively and efficiently.

In fact, the development and strengthening of the Royal Cambodia Armed Forces should not only focus on the organization of structure and capacities of the Armed Forces, but also strengthening the implementation of their roles and duties, which are beneficial for both the organization and socio-economy. I realize that various units under the control of the General Headquarter of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces must try to strictly fulfill their duties with more productive results such as the management of units, strengthening of conscience and sense of national defense, strengthening of capacities through short- and long- term trainings inside and outside the country, maintenance of war equipments and artilleries, health maintenance, farming, and ensuring the living condition of the Armed Forces, international humanitarian mission, red cross supporting tasks as well as other works to support the people.

Through the implementation and fulfillment of these duties, I believe that our Royal Cambodian Armed Forces will become a good role model and more competent forces which contribute to socio-economic development and poverty reduction of the people, and their capacities will also be enhanced.

With the recent 15th Anniversary of the Brigade E70, once again, I would like to appreciate and highly evaluate various achievements made by the Brigade E70 so far.  At the same time, I would like to express my deepest thanks to the military officers, vice-officers and privates of the Brigade E70 for preventing and maintaining security, safety and social order for our people so far and I would like to thank Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen and national and international donors who, through the culture of sharing, have jointly contributed both mental and physical and budget supports for Brigade E70 to improve its work efficiency and solve all sorts of hardship of our Armed Forces here.

Along with this, when Cambodia has been impacted by the effect of the Ketsana typhoon, which caused natural disasters, flooding, damaged properties, destroyed farming products, and resulted in the loss of human and animal lives. I would like to appeal to the related ministries/institutions, especially the National Authority for Disasters Management and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and donors to continue providing all kinds of contribution timely and efficiently to intervene and salvage our people, who suffered from this natural disaster. Moreover, the National Authority for Disaster Management with cooperation from all relevant ministries/institutions must have post-disaster rescue plan by focusing on solving the issues of resettlement, foods, sanitation, health maintenance, restore and repair the infrastructure, especially roads and irrigation systems.

At this end, my wife and I would like to wish Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, national and international distinguished guests and all compatriots the four gems of Buddhist blessing: Longevity, Nobility, Health and Strength.

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