21st February 2024, Phnom Peng, Cambodia. The South Asia Foresight Network SAFN in Washington DC and the International Relations Institute of Cambodia(IRIC) of the Government Royal Academy in Cambodia entered into an MOU for research collaboration and exchange.  The collaboration will enable joint research in Cambodia and the region of Southeast Asia, where the SAFN network will conduct foreign policy, security and Futures Research. The Director General, Dr Kin Phea, Head of the Institute of International Relations of Cambodia, said, “This is a historical moment, where IRIC has signed its first MOU with a Washington DC-based US think tank”.

The collaboration will bridge Southeast Asia and Washington DC to understand the existing and emerging geopolitical and foreign policy challenges in the Indo-Pacific. Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, the Executive Director of SAFN, delivered a special lecture on “History of Cambodia-Sri Lanka Relations: A Sri Lankan Perspective on Present Geopolitical Challenges.”