The inaugural Diplomacy-Business Friendship Golf Tournament – an initiative of Cambodia’s foreign ministry – was held on October 3, with the aim of strengthening relations between all governments whose diplomats are serving in the Kingdom.
The event took place at the Garden City Golf Club in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar district with over 70 participants, most of them diplomats to Cambodia.
Among the entrants were US ambassador W Patrick Murphy and Japanese ambassador Atsushi Ueno.
The event was initiated as an evolution of former foreign minister Prak Sokhonn’s success in establishing “traditional, economic and food diplomacy”, according to a press statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
“Apart from the three forms practised by Sokhonn, we initiated new ideas of what other directions diplomacy could go in. We needed to choose something which would form a new basis for communications and as a result, we prepared the idea of ‘sports diplomacy’,” said Cambodian incumbent foreign minister Sok Chenda Sophea.
The minister added that the event marked only the first step of sports diplomacy, as the foreign ministry intends to stage other events in the future.
“The tournament was attended by diplomats from more than 26 countries, which is significant because both the diplomats and I have very tight schedules. Aside from face-to-face conversations during official meetings, we have very little time to meet in a different environment, barring national festivals,” he explained.
“This event represented an opportunity for the diplomats and government leaders to meet in a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere. I hope that all of the participants will have the opportunity to communicate more closely from now on, and establish cooperation both in diplomatic terms and with the private sector. There were no winners or losers, because we all won at this tournament,” he added.
