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India to help restore temple at Angkor Wat

By Amit Baruah

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, with the Cambodian King, Norodom Sihanouk, at the Royal Palace at Phnom Penh in Cambodia on Wednesday. — PTI

SIEM (Cambodia) APRIL 10. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, called on the Cambodian monarch, King Norodom Sihanouk, in Phnom Penh today before flying to Siem Reap this evening, from where he will visit the adjoining Angkor Wat complex tomorrow.

On the second-day of his three-day visit, Mr. Vajpayee had a warm discussion with the King, who recalled the visit of Jawaharlal Nehru to Cambodia in 1954 as well as his own visit to India in 1957. The King — the last surviving participant of the 1955 Bandung Conference — told the Prime Minister that he was an admirer of Indian democracy. "The warmth and affection (during the meeting) was undeniable,'' Mr. Shashank, Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, told presspersons. Mr. Vajpayee also had a meeting with the National Assembly President, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, one of King Sihanouk's sons and a mainline politician. This renewal of contact at the highest level with Cambodia is significant because Phnom Penh has long pointed to the absence of high-level visits. There are no "issues'' between the two countries, but a history of long contacts — which have now been renewed at the level of Prime Minister.

A CII and FICCI delegation today signed separate memorandums of understandings (MoUs) with the Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce, officials said. Under the agreement, CII has agreed to help the Phnom Penh Chamber with the wherewithal required to run a chamber of commerce. Under the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) programme, the Government of India will provide seed money of $ 1 million to set up a museum of traditional textiles in Siem Reap.

There is little doubt that the agreement signed to restore the Ta Prohm temple in the Angkor Wat complex is the most significant agreement reached during the Prime Minister's visit.

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