Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng met Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Sam Rainsy for two hours in Phnom Penh yesterday, to discuss proposed amendments to the internal regulations of the National Assembly.

According to Rainsy, the meeting was the latest mark of how the “culture of dialogue” between the CNRP and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) continues to survive, even after the arrests of several opposition activists and an opposition senator, and after he made deeply critical comments of the government during a recent trip to Australia.

“We will continue to work together and show that the culture of dialogue is still surviving,” he said.

Meanwhile, CNRP member and co-chairman of the National Assembly working group for amending internal regulations Eng Chhay Eang said he and his CPP counterpart, Pen Panha, had made progress, and would bring the two parties together next week to finalise some lingering details.

“We need to revise some vocabulary, and the result will come out next week,” he said.

Among the key demands of the CNRP is for the opposition to have control of the Assembly’s Finance Committee and the CNRP to have an official spokesman within the body.

Kheng declined to answer questions after yesterday’s meeting, but said in a televised interview beforehand that the parties would “continue to examine the matter in order to find a resolution in time for commune elections in 2017”.