[3] The CGDK was allowed to retain the Cambodian/Kampuchean seat in the United Nations on the premise that it was a legitimate Cambodian government in contrast to the pro-Vietnamese/pro-Soviet People's Republic of Kampuchea regime.

The Western states had previously opposed proposals by the Eastern Bloc countries to replace the Khmer Rouge-held seat of Cambodia by the representation of the Vietnamese-installed regime.

[13] Sihanouk reluctantly agreed, and started talks in March 1981 with the Khmer Rouge and the Son Sann-led KPNLF on a unified anti-PRK resistance movement.

[14] After several rounds of negotiations mediated by Deng and Singapore's prime minister Lee Kuan Yew,[15] FUNCINPEC, KPNLF, and the Khmer Rouge agreed to form the CGDK in June 1982.

[16] Prior to the formation of the CGDK political coalition, in the late 1980s and early 1990s the Sonn Sann and Sihanouk opposition forces, then known as the KPNLF and FUNCINPEC, drew some military and financial support from the United States, which sought to assist these two movements as part of the Reagan Doctrine effort to counter Soviet and Vietnamese involvement in Cambodia.