PM rejects claims he attended West Point through Thai military quota

PHNOM PENH, May 30, 2026 (KPT) – Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet has denied claims circulating online that he attended the United States Military Academy at West Point through a scholarship quota allocated to the Thai military.

In a statement released Friday, Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet said he wanted to address what he described as a “long-standing misunderstanding” following comments on social media after he marked the 27th anniversary of his graduation from West Point on May 29, 1999.

Some Thai social media users alleged that he was admitted to the prestigious US academy through a quota assigned to Thailand. Hun Manet rejected the claim, saying he had never studied under a Thai military allocation.

He stressed that the United States independently determines which countries receive places for foreign cadets, and that such slots cannot be transferred between nations. His academic records, he added, identify him as a Cambodian cadet.

Admission requirements for international students include a nomination from their own country’s defence ministry and endorsement from the US embassy in that country. Hun Manet said he was nominated by Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence and endorsed by the US Embassy in Phnom Penh in 1995.

“That clearly confirms that the quota under which I studied at West Point was one granted by the United States to Cambodia, not to Thailand,” he said.

The prime minister added that anyone seeking to verify the matter could contact Thailand’s Ministry of Defence, the US Embassy in Bangkok or the US Military Academy at West Point. He said he hoped the clarification would put an end to claims that he attended the academy through a Thai military quota.

Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet graduated from West Point in 1999 before pursuing further studies in the United States and the United Kingdom. He became Cambodia’s prime minister in 2023.