Foreign and Military Affairs

Climate change to blame for Mekong droughts: Cambodian PM

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-06 20:46

PHNOM PENH - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday that blames on China over droughts of the Mekong River is baseless and the global climate change is to blame instead.

Hun Sen, who attended last week's Mekong Summit in Hua Hin of Thailand along with other leaders and scientists, said,"They (some countries) are blaming China ... while China itself is being victimized by droughts ... China's Lancang River has no water, either," Hun Sen said.

"The upper part of China's Yunnan province is also facing severe droughts, worse than Cambodia," he said.

"The level of water in the Mekong River totally depends on rain and the level of water fluctuates with the climate change," said Hun Sen.

"I am not defending China, but I am saying this only to provide justice for China," Hun Sen said, adding that he had a separate talk with China and Laos on the sidelines of the Mekong Summit in Thailand.

Hun Sen also said that the climate change hit countries across the world. "In Cambodia, wells are dried up," he said."We -- Cambodia, China, Laos and Vietnam -- are facing droughts as well."

The first Mekong River Commission Summit was held in Hua Hin, Thailand, on April 4-5. The meeting, which was attended by heads of the governments from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as their dialogue partners of China and Myanmar, had discussed how to tackle the climate change and respond to the Mekong River's droughts as well as to achieve sustainable development in Mekong basin.

During the meeting, China had pledged to make closer cooperation with the countries that use water from Mekong river, according to Lim Kean Hor, Cambodia's minister of water resource management and meteorology, who also attended the summit.