ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has felicitated Cambodian Head of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk over the liberation of Phnom Penh. We are convinced that your success will significantly advance the cause of peace and justice in other parts of Asia and Africa, he said in his message released today [April 18]. The Prime Minister said: “The liberation of Phnom Penh is the final triumph in the heroic struggle of the Cambodian people to re-assert their national independence. The people and the Government of Pakistan ... are gratified over the victory of the Cambodian people.”

[News agencies add from Hong Kong,] Chairman Mao Tsetung and other Chinese leaders greeted the fall of Phnom Penh by saying it proved that small and weak nations could defeat big and strong ones. The Communist Party organ, the People’s Daily, commented that with the nationalist victory in Cambodia the United States and the Soviet Union had lost all stakes in that country. … The People’s Daily … described the Cambodian nationalist victory as “an important event of far-reaching significance in Asia since the end of World War II”.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2025