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• 1 hour ago• Lim_Rothanaksambath
'No One Knows Peace's Value Like a Veteran': PM Opens VECONAC Assembly
PHNOM PENH — Oct. 5, 2026: Prime Minister Hun Manet told ASEAN veterans on Monday that no one understands the value of peace better than those who fought for it, as he opened the 25th VECONAC General Assembly in Phnom Penh.
Addressing the gathering at the Peace Palace, the Prime Minister called the care and recognition of veterans and retirees a "moral duty and national gratitude" owed by later generations. He noted that respect for elders is a value rooted deeply in Asian culture, Cambodia included.
He said VECONAC is both a humanitarian force improving veterans' well-being and social protection, and an influential regional mechanism for peace and sustainable development. Veterans, he said, are defenders of history, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
PM Hun Manet credited Cambodia's present peace and national unity to the Win-Win Policy of Samdech Techo Hun Sen, describing veterans and retirees as "direct actors" who embraced reconciliation without a single shot fired. The slogan "Thank You, Peace," he said, carries both a call to protect peace and an expression of gratitude to those who built it.
Photo: Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet, Prime Minister of Cambodia
He set out six recommendations for the confederation, urging members to safeguard peace as the foundation of development, deepen solidarity among ASEAN veterans' associations, keep veterans' welfare at the centre of cooperation, promote veterans as peace educators, make VECONAC more responsive to a changing region, and preserve the "VECONAC family spirit."
"No one understands the value of peace better than veterans," he said, calling for their sacrifices to be remembered with gratitude and their wartime experience turned into lessons for peace.
Source: Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet, Prime Minister of Cambodia
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19ybuY2wwk/
Reported by The Khmer Daily Network
Addressing the gathering at the Peace Palace, the Prime Minister called the care and recognition of veterans and retirees a "moral duty and national gratitude" owed by later generations. He noted that respect for elders is a value rooted deeply in Asian culture, Cambodia included.
He said VECONAC is both a humanitarian force improving veterans' well-being and social protection, and an influential regional mechanism for peace and sustainable development. Veterans, he said, are defenders of history, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
PM Hun Manet credited Cambodia's present peace and national unity to the Win-Win Policy of Samdech Techo Hun Sen, describing veterans and retirees as "direct actors" who embraced reconciliation without a single shot fired. The slogan "Thank You, Peace," he said, carries both a call to protect peace and an expression of gratitude to those who built it.
Photo: Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet, Prime Minister of CambodiaHe set out six recommendations for the confederation, urging members to safeguard peace as the foundation of development, deepen solidarity among ASEAN veterans' associations, keep veterans' welfare at the centre of cooperation, promote veterans as peace educators, make VECONAC more responsive to a changing region, and preserve the "VECONAC family spirit."
"No one understands the value of peace better than veterans," he said, calling for their sacrifices to be remembered with gratitude and their wartime experience turned into lessons for peace.
Source: Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet, Prime Minister of Cambodia
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19ybuY2wwk/
Reported by The Khmer Daily Network
