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Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Australia taps new ambassador

Australia taps new ambassador

| Publication date 03 March 2016 | 06:58 ICT

Alison Burrows (pictured), the outgoing Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, will be replaced by Angela Corcoran, who is expected to take up the position in April.
Alison Burrows (pictured), the outgoing Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, will be replaced by Angela Corcoran, who is expected to take up the position in April. Heng Chivoan

Australia taps new ambassador

Australia yesterday named senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officer Angela Corcoran the country’s new ambassador to Cambodia.

A statement from Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said Corcoran was expected to take up the position in April. She replaces Alison Burrows, who moved to the Phnom Penh embassy in 2013.

The statement highlighted that Australia and Cambodia worked closely on transnational crime, had two-way trade worth $170 million in 2014-15 and that education ties between the two countries were strengthening.

Not mentioned in the statement was the controversial A$55 million refugee deal over which Burrows presided. The deal has so far resulted in five refugees relocating to Cambodia from the tiny island nation of Nauru.

Four now remain.

“I thank outgoing Ambassador Alison Burrows for her strong contribution since 2013 in advancing Australia’s interests in Cambodia,” Bishop said in the statement.

Corcoran will be the seventh woman in a row to hold the position since Louise Hand replaced Malcolm Leader in 2000.

A previous version of this article failed to specify the currency of the Australian refugee deal. The deal was A$55 million, not US$55 million.
Contact author: Will Jackson

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