Samdech Techo Hun Sen, through a post on social media on October 9, 2026, shared: I just received a photograph taken in June 1979. The person who received me was the former Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko (Andre Gromyko).
Andrei Gromyko was born in 1909, so at the time he was 70 years old, while I was born in 1952, so I was just 27.
The meeting was between one side, an elder at 70 years old, older than my father, representing a global superpower, and on the other side, myself, a young man of just 27 representing a small, poor country that had just emerged from the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
Before the meeting, I was truly worried because as a young minister, both in age and in diplomatic knowledge, I had to negotiate with an elder diplomat, a former Soviet ambassador to the United States during World War II (1943 to 1946).
While thinking, I glanced at the car I was riding in and saw two national flags on the left, the Soviet flag, and on the right, the Cambodian flag.
Seeing this, I immediately felt courageous, thinking that although young and from a small, poor country, I represented a sovereign state, and although older and from a large, wealthy country, he also represented a sovereign state just the same.
I have always embraced the philosophy of equality and equal rights. 