The US Ambassador to Cambodia dismisses any idea of wiping off Cambodia's $500M debt contracted by the Lon Nol government before the Khmer Rouge seized power, and invites Cambodia to face up to facts.

“I will say that the issue of cancellation…that wasn’t on the table when I was here in the 1990s. It has never been on the table since then. So we have never discussed seriously or considered canceling that debt with Cambodia,” he said.

US Hits Back At Government Over $500 Million Debt, Democracy
by Colin Meyn and Ben Sokhean | February 6, 2017

The U.S. ambassador said on Friday that Cambodia was in a league with only three other countries—Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe—in being in arrears to the U.S., and said the government should stop dwelling on the past and start planning how to pay back a loan from the 1970s now worth $500 million.

“I am not sure that’s a group that it’s in Cambodia’s interest to be a member of,” U.S. Ambassador William Heidt said of countries in arrears to the U.S., speaking to journalists from Khmer-language media outlets at the U.S. Embassy on Friday, in a recording obtained by The Cambodia Daily.

“Until it takes care of its debt with America and its other creditors, it cannot have a normal relationship with the IMF” or take advantage of other opportunities to borrow money from the international markets, he said.

Mr. Heidt also spoke critically of Cambodia canceling military exercises with the U.S. and of Prime Minister HE proposing legislation that would sideline the main opposition party. “I don’t think that’s what the Cambodian people want.”
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/us-h ... cy-124612/

The Cambodian government contests the US loan as "dirty money":

Cambodia Owes the U.S Over $500 Million
Published: 04/02/2017

Phnom Penh (FN), February 4 - The American Ambassador to Cambodia, William A. Heidt, claims that the United States has lent next to $500 million dollars to Cambodia and never planned to free the loan.
During a meeting between the Ambassador and Cambodian journalists at the U.S embassy on Feb. 3, the Ambassador stated that, "By 1990s, Cambodia owed just over $200 million to the U.S. Now, the loan (including interest) has increased to over $500 million."

On January 20, 2017, Prime Minister HE requested that the U.S government free the loan during Lon Nol's regime that took place between 1970 to 1975 because the loan is dirty money.

The premier added that the U.S was the main country that assisted Lon Nol's military coup to unseat Cambodia's former King, Norodom Sihanouk. This led to numerous destructive civil wars in Cambodia, so the U.S should free the loan as compensation.

According to the statistical data approved by Bill Clinton in 2000, the U.S dropped over 2.8 tons of explosives including toxic ones in Cambodia between 1965 to 1973. The U.S claimed to stop Vietnamese invasion into Cambodia, but the mission killed over half a million Cambodians and destroyed thousands of houses.
=FRESH NEWS

the greatest nation on earth worrying about $500 million ha !!
maybe in the not-too-distant future China and Japan will be saying the same thing to the USA! Show us the money and tell us how you are going settle your debt(1.3 and $1.1 trillion)

harassment alert! maybe not distant future, Mr HE will ask the immigration check points to conduct "extreme" vetting on american tourist,

Username Taken wrote:Damned right they should write off the debt!

To this day, Cambodia and Cambodians are still paying for the American's war with Vietnam.

you are damned right!

A debt is a debt. I don't think they should write it off at all. The kleptomaniac ringleaders of this country could pay off the debt in a heartbeat and their wallets wouldn't feel the effects. It's shameful that Cambodia is one of very few countries which are so stuck up on leaching off others for stuff. Which other countries in the region have such a big NGO crowd taking over the government's responsibility and foreign governments paying for all its infrastructure? They learned it from UNTAC days of course, so the US has no one to blame but themselves from helping to create a nation of beggars. Pay up.

obelisks wrote:the greatest nation on earth worrying about $500 million ha !!
maybe in the not-too-distant future China and Japan will be saying the same thing to the USA! Show us the money and tell us how you are going settle your debt(1.3 and $1.1 trillion)

The US govt will always be able to pay of US dollar denominated debt. It can just print the money. It may not have any value in regard to other currencies but it will be the amount stated.

Countries only go bankrupt when they borrow in currencies other than their own, known as Euro Dollars (not to be confused with the Euro currency), as they have to buy those currencies on the open market by exchanging their own currency for the currency they need to buy to pay off the debt.

Cambodia, US duel over Vietnam War debt
28 March 2017
Washington's demand that Phnom Penh repay a four-decade-old US$500 million loan will likely push the post-conflict country even closer to China.

With democracy and human rights again in retreat in Cambodia, an agreement by the US to renegotiate the debt might provide it with financial leverage to regain some of its lost political influence.

Indeed, the US$500 million repayment issue comes at a trying time for Cambodia’s finances, with national debt standing at around one-third of GDP. The Cambodian economy, which has expanded around 7% per annum over the last decade, could be poised for structurally slower growth due to its fast rising debt obligations, including to China.

Because of Phnom Penh’s persistent refusal to pay, Washington has in kind pressured the International Monetary Fund to restrict its engagement with Cambodia, including the provision of potentially vital loans if new foreign investments start to wane.

“To me, Cambodia does not look like a country that should be in arrears. Buildings coming up all over the city; foreign investment coming in; government revenue is rising rapidly.” – US Ambassador to Cambodia William Heidt

Stratfor, a US-based private intelligence outfit, noted in a report that the debt issue is largely a “symbolic matter”, but that the issue does give the US “more leverage” over Phnom Penh. But if Washington’s aim is to win more influence, including vis-à-vis China, by replacing carrots with sticks, a tough stance on the debt issue could have the opposite effect...
http://www.atimes.com/article/cambodia- ... -war-debt/

@CEOCambodiaNews The USA dropped about 2.8 million bombs on Cambodia. See: http://rabble.ca/toolkit/on-this-day/us ... g-cambodia