VZCZCXRO9124
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0596 1170904
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 270904Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8366
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS PHNOM PENH 000596 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR IO/T--GUINNEVERE ROBERTS 
VIENTIANE FOR JOSH ARCHIBALD 
BANGKOK FOR ESTH--JIM WALLER AND USAID/OFDA--ROBERT BARTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV TPHY AORC CB
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA NONCOMMITTAL ON WMO DEMARCHE 
 
REF: STATE 47359 
 
¶1.  On April 25, Poleconoff presented points in reftel to two 
officials from the Ministry of Water Resources and 
Meteorology, Long Saravuth, Director of Meteorology 
Department, and Oum Ryna, Deputy Director of Meteorology 
Department.  The officials indicated that they had already 
been alerted to the WMO meeting by a Thai counterpart and 
said that they hoped to attend but had no funding.  They were 
hoping that the Thai counterpart would be able to arrange 
Thai government funding for them.  Thailand has reached out 
to Cambodia and Laos to encourage them to attend the meeting 
together.  They had no immediate reaction to the US positions 
presented. 
 
¶2.  Oum Ryna said that he would like to see more regional and 
global cooperation on climate change.  He noted that he had 
attended the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol and asked if 
the US had softened its stance on the protocol.  Speaking 
about disaster prevention and management, the deputy director 
noted that Cambodia's most significant severe weather concern 
is cyclones.  He also noted that Cambodia was improving its 
communication alert system.  The country now has a GTS 
system, but lost funding for this system when a JICA 
volunteer, who worked on the system, left.  The WMO has 
promised to pay the monthly costs of maintaining the system, 
but the Meteorology Department has not yet received this 
funding. 
MUSSOMELI