CAMBODIA NONCOMMITTAL ON WMO DEMARCHE

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