PHNOM PENH – Cambodian and US officials held talks on Thursday to explore ways of settling a decades-old “dirty debt” of more than $400 million, both sides said. The low-interest loans from the US were given to the government of General Lon Nol after it came to power in a US-backed coup in 1970. Cambodia says the money helped pay for a devastating bombing campaign on the country by US forces targeting Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the early 1970s.
Prime Minister Hun Sen last year called for the “dirty debt” to be cancelled, but the govt softened its stance after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in November that Washington was willing to discuss alternative ways for Cambodia to repay the sum. A Phnom Penh meeting between US Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun and Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was the first step in that direction, the US embassy said in a statement.
