He spoke to government officials, donors, diplomats and other groups at the inauguration of a bridge over the Mekong River, funded by the Japanese Government.
Hun Sen defended his tenure, saying he has done many positive things as the country's leader, including maintaining national stability and furthering economic development.
"If I did not show good leadership, the Japanese government would never have granted the budget for building this bridge," Hun Sen said.
He said this referring to the 95-million-dollar grant to build one of the longest bridges in Cambodia.
He insisted that he had worked hard to promote peace in Cambodia after the disastrous rule of the Khmer Rouge.
"When Hun Sen was promoted to be the prime minister, the civil war was still going on.``Don't be confused; if there is no Hun Sen, there is no Paris peace accord.
"If I had been a bad leader, everyone would not be together like today,” he said.
The anniversary came a day after New York-based Human Rights Watch released a 67-page report accusing him of holding on to power for too long.
The prime minister was also blamed for violence, repression, corruption and controversial land seizures.
Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge soldier who fled to Vietnam in 1977.
He returned after Vietnamese forces overthrew the regime two years later, and he became prime minister in 1985.
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