Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a speech before he was shot from behind by a man in Nara, a city in western Japan, on Friday, 8 July 2022. The Asahi Shimbun/ReutersOn behalves of HRH Samdech Norodom Sirivudh, Founder and Chairman of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace and all other Members of the Board of Directors as well as the entire executive staffs of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP), we wish to express our heartfelt sorrow and deepest sympathy for the senseless loss of life of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He was a virtuous friend of the peoples of Cambodia, an extraordinary leader of Japan and a brilliant statesman full of virtue and compassion for the global community.
The preposterous assassination of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is indeed a wonderful person, a real democrat and a true champion of the multilateral world order, has stunned the whole world. This tragedy is considered a great loss to the international community and to Cambodia.
Being the longest uninterrupted occupant of the Kantei or the Prime Minister’s Office in the modern history of Japan and after his return to politics in 2012, Mr. Abe has been the titleholder in reclaiming Japan’s prestige and eminent status at world stage due to his far-sighted vision, particularly related to the national security strategy. He has led Japan with a grand strategy of Asia-focus and his support for the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, whereby focusing his commitment to securing the international liberal order through the enhancement of multilateralist ways of resolving global issues and tempering the unpredictable American Fist foreign policy of Donald Trump in East Asia. With his well-endowed international experience and frequent overseas travel, Mr. Abe emerged as an uncontested leader of Japan that succeeded in the attempt to establish Japan as a proactive and leading power in global affairs.
Mr. Abe was also a champion in reclaiming Japan back from the constraints of her postwar regime. He has been an ardent revisionism, attempting to revise the country’s pacifist constitution and to rejuvenate the nation through new conservative values. There is no doubt that Mr. Abe succeeded in redefining Japan’s geostrategic purpose, making the country as a credible player in international and security affairs.
More amazingly, even in retirement mode, Mr. Abe remained an elder statesman who represents the force of unity among the LDP’s factional groups to remain as a dominant political party. His devotions and dedications to Japan were truly admirable beyond those in Japan.
H.E. Shinzo Abe was a truly a good friend to Southeast Asia. Under his premiership, by all accounts, Japan-Southeast Asia relations reached higher levels, covering wide range of partnership on key areas which are beneficial for our people.
For Cambodia, Mr. Abe had been a faithful friend and a staunched supporter to the country’s national development needs. Cambodia has achieved positive developments during the past few decades, in part thanks to Japan and its noble statemen like PM Abe. The Cambodian people are forever grateful to him for his generosity and openhanded support.
For all of these reasons and more, we, at CICP, wish to respectfully express our grief and mourn with Mr. Abe’s family, his friends and all the people of Japan. May his soul rest in everlasting peace and tranquility.
Pou Sothirak
Executive Director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace
Former Cambodian Ambassador to Japan from 2005-2008