Approximately 197,810 square metres of land cleared of landmines and unexploded ordnance under India's Quick Impact Project (QIP) was formally handed over to residents of Kaoh Pao Village in Cambodia's Koh Kong Province on 4 October 2026. The demined land is expected to benefit around 134 families, restoring safe access to livelihoods, farming, and housing.

The Handover Ceremony

The formal handover was attended by Tanu Priya, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Cambodia; Y. Nearynet, Deputy Governor of Koh Kong Province; and Tep Kallyan, Deputy Secretary General of the Cambodia Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA). The Indian Embassy noted in a post on X that the land was cleared under the Quick Impact Project Scheme of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation framework.

What This Means for the Community

In an official statement, the Indian Embassy in Cambodia said, 'The return of this land to the community will provide safe access for livelihoods, farming, housing and other socio-economic activities.' The handover marks a tangible humanitarian outcome from India's decades-long engagement with Cambodia's demining efforts. According to the embassy, India has been supporting Cambodia's mine-action programme since the early 1990s, providing capacity building and training, technical assistance, demining equipment, mine detection dogs, and support to mine victims.

India-Cambodia Ties: A Broader Picture

This development comes against the backdrop of deepening bilateral relations between the two countries. On 24 August, India and Cambodia held the third meeting of the Joint Working Group on Trade and Investment (JWGTI) in Phnom Penh, agreeing to diversify and deepen bilateral trade. The meeting was co-chaired by Amit Verma, Joint Secretary at India's Department of Commerce, and Long Kemvichet, Director General of International Trade at Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce.

Bilateral trade between India and Cambodia grew by over 36 per cent to reach USD 406.78 million in 2025–26, up from USD 299 million the previous financial year. The April–June 2026 quarter recorded a further 63.25 per cent year-on-year growth. Cambodia is currently India's 8th largest trading partner in ASEAN, accounting for 0.31 per cent of India's total trade with the bloc — a figure both sides see as reflecting significant room for expansion.

Areas identified for deeper cooperation include traditional medicine, e-governance modules, recognition of the Indian pharmacopoeia, trade statistics reconciliation, and the strengthening of digital payments systems between the two nations.

India's Long-Term Commitment to Humanitarian Mine Action

The Kaoh Pao handover is part of a pattern of India deploying its Mekong-Ganga Cooperation framework to deliver on-the-ground humanitarian outcomes across Southeast Asia. Landmine contamination has long restricted agricultural use and settlement in parts of Koh Kong Province, and community-level land restitution of this scale represents a direct quality-of-life improvement for rural households. With the QIP model delivering results, further demining projects under the bilateral framework remain a possibility.