Hun Sen in the context of "Cambodia"

2025 (MMXXV) is the current year, and is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2025th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 25th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 6th year of the 2020s decade.

So far, the year has seen an escalation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began peace negotiations involving Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The Gaza war, including a famine and humanitarian crisis, as well as the Sudanese civil war, also continued throughout the year. Internal crises in Armenia, Bangladesh, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Haiti, Peru, Somalia, and South Korea continued into this year, with the latter leading to President Yoon Suk Yeol's arrest and removal from office. The year has also seen a wave of protests predominantly led by Generation Z, with some, like those in Nepal and Madagascar, resulting in the overthrow of governments. Several brief conflicts out of longstanding tensions emerged mid-year—India–Pakistan in May, Iran–Israel in June, and Cambodia–Thailand in July, in which a leaked phone call involving Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodian senate president Hun Sen resulted in the removal of the former.

The 1997 Cambodian coup d'état (Khmer: រដ្ឋប្រហារកម្ពុជាឆ្នាំ១៩៩៧, UNGEGN: Rôdthâbrâhar Kâmpŭchéa chhnăm 1997) took place in Cambodia from July to September 1997. As a result, co-premier Hun Sen ousted the other co-premier Norodom Ranariddh. At least 32 people were killed during the coup.

On 15 June 2025, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra held a 17-minute private phone call with Cambodian Senate President and former Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss a peaceful resolution to the 2025 Cambodian–Thai border crisis. Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh, Khleang Huot, acted as an interpreter on the call.

On 18 June 2025, a 9 minute audio recording of the call was leaked. Later that day, Hun Sen confirmed he had recorded the full conversation and posted it on his Facebook page.

On 18 June 2025, a political crisis in Thailand arose when a phone call between then-Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodian senate president Hun Sen leaked amidst a major border conflict between the two kingdoms. The leak led the Bhumjaithai Party to withdraw from the governing coalition led by Paetongtarn and her Pheu Thai Party.

The resulting controversy and backlash led the Constitutional Court to suspend Paetongtarn from her official duties on 1 July, before fully removing her from office on 29 August. Due to the impasse created by the withdrawal of Bhumjaithai from the majority, the minority People's Party acted as kingmaker, supporting the former party's leader, Anutin Charnvirakul, to succeed the caretaker government.

After decades of conflict, Cambodia's current form of government began in 1993 with the restoration of the monarchy and end of the State of Cambodia and the United Nations Transitional Authority after general elections were held. Since 1993, the Cambodian People's Party have consistently been in government, and consolidated power in a 1997 coup d'état. Hun Sen was prime minister until transfer of power to his son, Hun Manet, in 2023.

The Third Indochina War was a series of interconnected military conflicts among the various communist factions over strategic influence in mainland Southeast Asia after communist victory in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in 1975. The conflict primarily started due to continued raids and incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnamese territory that they sought to retake. These incursions would result in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in which the newly unified Vietnam overthrew the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge, in turn ending the Cambodian genocide. Vietnam had installed a government led by many opponents of Pol Pot, most notably Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander. This led to Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia for over a decade. The Vietnamese push to completely destroy the Khmer Rouge led to them conducting border raids in Thailand against those who had provided sanctuary.

Vietnam-China relations became tense because Vietnam chose to be pro-Soviet after unification in 1976 instead of being neutral as before. China strongly objected to the invasion of Cambodia. Chinese armed forces launched a punitive operation (Sino-Vietnamese War) in February 1979 and attacked Vietnam's northern provinces, determined to contain Soviet/Vietnamese influence and prevent territorial gains in the region.

The National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, commonly referred to as FUNCINPEC, is a royalist political party in Cambodia. Founded in 1981 by Norodom Sihanouk, it began as a resistance movement against the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government. In 1982, it formed a resistance pact with the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), together with the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) and the Khmer Rouge. It became a political party in 1992.

FUNCINPEC was one of the signatories of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, which paved the way for the formation of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The party participated in the 1993 general elections organised by UNTAC. It won the elections, and formed a coalition government with the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), with which it jointly headed. Norodom Ranariddh, Sihanouk's son who had succeeded him as the party president, became First Prime Minister while Hun Sen, who was from the CPP, became Second Prime Minister.

The politics of Cambodia are defined within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the king serves as the head of state, and the prime minister is the head of government. In practice, Cambodia is an authoritarian state, as power is centralized in the hands of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) under leader Hun Manet. Civil society groups, independent media and opposition parties are repressed, and elections are not free and fair.

The collapse of communism set in motion events that led to the withdrawal of the Vietnamese armed forces, which had established their presence in the country since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. The 1993 constitution, which is currently in force, was promulgated as a result of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, followed by elections organized under the aegis of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. The constitution declares Cambodia to be an "independent, sovereign, peaceful, permanently neutral and non-aligned country." The constitution also proclaims a liberal, multiparty democracy in which powers are devolved to the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. However, there is no effective opposition to the Prime Minister, a position long held by Hun Sen, from 1984 until 2023, and now held by his son. Their Cambodian People's Party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly in 2018 after the banning of opposition party CNRP and KNLF. KNLF became a main opposition exiled in Denmark after CNRP was dissolved. During the communal election in 2022 and the national election in 2023, there were no international observers. The government is considered to be autocratic.