BY JONATHAN GREIG AND TAING VIDA
US presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are now on barnstorming tours across the country, making their final appeals to swing voters ahead of next Tuesday’s election.
Democratic candidate Ms. Clinton has received an overwhelming number of endorsements from a variety of places, including French President Francois Hollande and a bevy of newspapers, as well as several dozen from senior Republican party members.
Yet Republican candidate Mr. Trump will be glad to know there is one extra person supporting his candidacy: Prime Minister Hun Sen.
During a speech at the Royal Police Academy yesterday, Mr. Hun Sen told the crowd that he believed the brash billionaire would be better for the world than Ms. Clinton.
He said geopolitical trends showed that the world was headed towards another Cold War and one of the reasons for this shift was the US election.
It was unusual, he said to the crowd, for the US to have two candidates who were so starkly different.
“To be honest, I want Mr. Trump to win so badly,” he said. “If he wins, the world situation will see changes and get even better because Trump is a businessman, and as a businessman, he doesn’t want any war.”
The premier went on to say that if Ms. Clinton were to be the next president of the US, the world would “face war” because when she was secretary of state under current president Barack Obama, she advised the president to attack and invade Syria.
“If Ms. Clinton wins the US election, relations between the US and China could be difficult. And relations between the US and Russia could be hard to predict,” he said.
“However, if Mr. Trump wins the election, I think he could become friends with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin often compare themselves to one another and Mr. Trump has expressed admiration for the Russian premier’s brand of “leadership.” Many of Mr. Trump’s senior campaign figures have business ties to Russia and a number of former Soviet states.
Sadly for Mr. Hun Sen, his beliefs about Mr. Trump’s potential dealings with China do not line up with the candidate’s own comments about the Asian powerhouse.
The Republican has repeatedly threatened to start a trade war with China unless they adopt more US-favorable terms in a variety of trade deals. In a March interview with The New York Times, he would not rule out starting a war with China.
He has also threatened to go to war with Iran, Mexico, North Korea and a number of other countries if he became president.
But Mr. Hun Sen later turned his attention to the effect the election would have on Cambodia, telling the crowd that he was more worried about Ms. Clinton because of her history in supporting US military intervention in foreign conflicts. “He says the truth, unlike Ms. Clinton. Her point of view affects us,” he said.
On the other hand, the opposition said the party did not favor either candidate and believed that both Ms. Clinton and Mr. Trump could have an effect on ties between the US and Cambodia.
“We all know that the United States is a democratic country where people have total freedom to access information and to speak out,” said Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesperson Yim Sovann.
“Our party respects the American voters so we are rooting for no one. We believe both of the candidates will maintain a relationship with Cambodia and other countries.”
Yet political analysts in Cambodia have said there is a very decisive difference between the two candidates and worry about Mr. Trump’s lack of a definitive position on Asia outside of trade deals withChina.
The unpredictability of his campaign, his own views and his subsequent actions have made it hard to discern how he would approach a country like Cambodia, said Ou Virak, a political analyst and president of the Future Forum.
“Hillary wants stronger interna ional relations and will follow some of Obama’s policies,” he said. “I think the relationship between America and Cambodia, including other countries, would not be much different with her, while Trump might change a lot because he is unpredictable.
“I expect no change from Ms. Clinton. But for Trump, I believe there would be some changes that concern the international community.
“He seems unclear on what he is doing. He talks about Russia but has no clear policies and he may harm the world.”
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/31678/hun-sen-plays-his-trump-card/
