Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet will travel to Lyon and Paris from April 6 to 9 at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on April 3. The visit coincides with the One Health Summit, a flagship event of France’s 2026 G7 presidency, and includes bilateral meetings in Paris with French officials and leaders of other countries.
The trip follows an intensifying Cambodia-France diplomatic sequence that has placed Paris at the center of the unresolved border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand.
In February 2026, France hosted the foreign ministers of both countries within 48 hours. Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow met French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on February 23. Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn met Barrot on February 25. The Thai readout said Sihasak “commended France’s neutral and constructive role” regarding the border situation. The French readout said France was ready to facilitate access to archives “linked to the demarcation of the border” while maintaining a position it described as “completely impartial.”
The archives in question are held at the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence. On February 4, Hun Manet sent Macron a formal letter requesting access to specific colonial-era records: the Fonds de l’Indochine and the 1904 and 1907 Franco-Siamese Border Commission files, according to Kiripost. These are the cartographic records produced by the boundary commissions that physically surveyed and marked the frontier between French Indochina and Siam.
The legal chain connecting those records to the current dispute is direct. The 2000 Memorandum of Understanding on the Survey and Demarcation of Land Boundary, signed by both Cambodia and Thailand and still in force, states in Article I that demarcation “shall be jointly conducted in accordance with” three categories of documents: the 1904 Convention between France and Siam, the 1907 Treaty and its annexed delimitation Protocol, and “Maps which are the results of demarcation works of Commissions de Délimitation de la Frontière entre l’Indo-Chine et le Siam.” Cambodia’s request targets the original records that the bilateral framework’s own governing text identifies as authoritative.
Kiripost reported that Hun Manet’s February letter references an “agreement in principle” on document access reached during a meeting with Macron at the Élysée on June 10, 2025. That meeting predates the July 2025 border clashes, which killed 43 people, and the December 2025 escalation, which Reuters reported killed 101 people and displaced more than 500,000 on both sides.
France played no visible diplomatic role during the previous Cambodia-Thailand military confrontation over Preah Vihear from 2008 to 2011. The institutional mediator then was Indonesia, as ASEAN chair. Official French records from that period contain travel advisories for the temple area but no documented mediation or legal-support channel comparable to the current engagement.
The broader bilateral relationship carries significant institutional weight. A January 2024 joint declaration between Macron and Hun Manet, published on the Élysée website, recorded three signed conventions worth EUR 215 million. The Agence Française de Développement has financed 92 projects in Cambodia for a cumulative EUR 927 million since 1993. Bilateral trade reached EUR 1.48 billion in 2024, according to the French Treasury. The same January 2024 declaration included discussion of “pluralisme politique” and “pleine protection des droits fondamentaux” at head-of-state level.
Both Cambodia and Thailand are pursuing upgraded bilateral relationships with France in 2026. Cambodian diplomatic sources describe a “strategic partnership” objective formalized through consultations in December 2025. The Thai MFA readout of the Sihasak-Barrot meeting references a proposed Thailand-France strategic partnership marking 170 years of diplomatic relations.
Cambodia hosts the 20th Francophonie Summit in Phnom Penh in November 2026. Macron is expected to attend.
Hun Manet’s delegation to France includes Prak Sokhonn, other deputy prime ministers and ministers, and First Lady Dr. Pich Chanmony. Cambodia held a “One Health for Cambodia” satellite event in Phnom Penh on April 1 and 2, co-chaired by Health Minister Chheang Ra, Environment Minister Eang Sophalleth, Agriculture Minister Dith Tina, and French Ambassador Olivier Richard.
Neither the Élysée nor the Cambodian foreign ministry has published the agenda for the Paris bilateral meetings scheduled for April 8 and 9.
