Cambodia and Russia have agreed to cooperate with each other on elections through the exchange of expert observers, joint workshops, and round table discussions, for the mutual interests of both countries.

The commitment was made during a meeting between Prach Chan, chairman of the National Election Committee (NEC) and Russian ambassador Anatoly Borovik on April 20, according to the NEC.

The NEC said that during the meeting Borovik recalled a 2018 MoU between Russia’s Central Election Commission and the NEC, which was signed in Moscow.

Borovik said that he wanted to see an exchange visit and monitoring by election specialists from each country, along with workshops and conferences based on scientific methods, as well as roundtable meetings.

The ambassador said that to date, Russia and Cambodia have signed up to 79 cooperation documents in all sectors.

Chan appreciated Borovik for attending the meeting. He spoke highly of the assistance that the former Soviet Union provided to Cambodia, as well as the assistance provided by Russia in the wake of the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

Chan said the Kingdom had previously dispatched election delegations to monitor presidential elections and attended other international conferences in Russia.

“Chan agreed that cooperation between the NEC and Russia’s Central Election Commission should be promoted, in order to make this cooperation move forward,” NEC said.

Chan also invited Russian embassy staff to monitor the coming national election, scheduled for July 23, as special guests, it added.