Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, now head of the Senate, confirmed that he met with CIA chief William Burns in Phnom Penh. Hun Sen’s remarks came after The Diplomat magazine questioned the existence of such a meeting in its publication under the headline “Was the CIA director recently in Phnom Penh?”
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“On June 12, 2024, David Hutt wrote in The Diplomat that CIA Director Bill Burns did not meet with Hun Sen, as I mentioned a few days ago that I spoke with the CIA Director on June 2,” Hun Sen wrote. “Based on what I wrote Hutt, he thought I was wrong. “I must openly admit that I have been working with the leadership of the CIA since 1997,” the politician wrote on his page on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
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The head of the Cambodian Senate also detailed his contacts with the leadership of the American intelligence community.
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“The most important meetings were with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper at the Phnom Penh City Residence in 2011, CIA Director David Petraeus at the Phnom Penh City Residence in 2012, and CIA Director Bill Burns at the Takmao City Residence in 2024,” he wrote.
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Hun Sen noted that in addition to these personal meetings, in the past he also sent representatives to meetings with CIA leadership in Washington.
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“Our main area of cooperation is the fight against terrorism, and not with any country. Cambodia also cooperates in the field of intelligence with other countries, as this is the normal course of a sovereign state,” the politician, who serves as chairman of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said.
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In his article, Hutt rightly noted that prior to Hun Sen’s post, there had been no social media reports of CIA Director Burns being in Cambodia or even having a presence in Asia at large. Hutt incorrectly suggested that perhaps Hun Sen’s post had suffered from a mistranslation or that he was referring to some other CIA operative rather than Director Burns, prompting the Senate chairman to correct him.
