Cambodia PM’s positive test after Ardern meet
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen tested positive for Covid-19 less than two days after meeting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern face-to-face.
News of Covid-19 among world leaders during a week of summits in Southeast Asia came as Ardern started the second day of a trade mission in Vietnam, fronting events to promote Fonterra and New Zealand’s hosting of the Fifa women’s world cup.
Hun Sen announced he tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday, and would not be attending the G20 summit in Bali and the Apec summit in Bangkok.
A spokesman for Ardern said the prime minister was ‘‘feeling fine’’ and had tested negative for the virus yesterday afternoon. She would continue to take precautionary RAT tests, and monitor herself for any symptoms.
A positive test could derail Ardern’s eight-day trip through Southeast Asia, though there are no requirements to self-isolate in Hanoi, Vietnam, where she had been since Monday for a trade mission.
Ardern will fly to Ho Chi Minh City this morning (NZ time), and then to Bangkok, Thailand, for an Apec summit later in the week.
Some of her previous overseas trips have been disrupted by Covid-19 this year. While travelling through the United States in May, both the secretary of foreign affairs and trade, Chris Seed, and Ardern’s chief press secretary, Andrew Campbell, tested positive. She contracted Covid-19 earlier in May 2022.
The prime minister had a bilateral with Hun Sen on Sunday evening (NZ time) on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after an East Asia Summit meeting where world leaders and their entourages crowded into a ballroom.
The summit was attended by world leaders including US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Ardern and Hun Sen had a one-onone meeting in Phnom Penh’s peace palace, spending less than an hour together – without wearing masks – in a meeting room. Immediately after she left, the United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres arrived for a bilateral meeting with Hun Sen.
Ardern spent Monday in meetings with top-ranking Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi, and yesterday kicked off a trade mission, fronting events with the New Zealand trade delegation.
With Trade Minister Damien O’Connor, Ardern led the delegation in a business dialogue with Vietnam’s trade minister, Nguyen Hong Dien, and Vietnamese business leaders.
The pair then attended a Fonterra event, where bone density measuring machines were on display.
Fonterra’s Vietnam general manager Roshan De Silva said the country had a fast-growing middle class and a need for milk due to the prevalence of osteoporosis in Southeast Asia.
Fonterra sold its product directly into Vietnam, and also provided its dairy powder as a base material for local powdered milk brand Anlene.
‘‘We have been able to do 100,000 bone scans so far,’’ De Silva said.
Ardern declined to have her bone density measured, instead putting O’Connor up for the job. The minister of trade and agriculture passed the test – he had above average bone density.