PHNOM PENH: U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday thanked Cambodia’s prime minister and chair of the ASEAN regional bloc for his critical remarks about the war in Ukraine, and said he was looking forward to democracy returning to army-ruled Myanmar.

Biden made the remarks ahead of a meeting with Hun Sen, Cambodia’s long-serving leader and this year’s head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc, which has been leading efforts to start a peace process in Myanmar.