On January 23, Moeung Samphan, Secretary of State at the Cambodian
Defense Ministry, and General Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of staff of the People’s
Liberation Army, signed a military cooperation agreement under which 12
Chinese-built Zhi-9 helicopters will be delivered to the Royal Cambodian Army.
As part of the deal, the People’s Liberation Army will also continue to provide
military training to the Cambodian military.
A previous agreement under which
the PLA would continue to deliver military training to Cambodian armed forces
was signed in May last year, while back in 2010 Beijing had donated 250 jeeps
and trucks to Cambodia’s army.
China is not the only nation
providing training to the Cambodian armed forces – the United States and
Australia, among others, do the same – and the recent deal is obviously
limited. It does, however, highlight the growing ties between Beijing and Phnom
Penh.
According to the Council for the
Development of Cambodia (CDC), China is now by far the biggest foreign investor
in Cambodia. On its website, the Council shows that in 2011 Cambodia attracted
$1.15 billion in Chinese investments, with an increase of 71 percent from $694
million a year earlier. From 1994 to 2011, Chinese investments totaled $8.866
billion dollars. By comparison, South Korea, the second biggest investor in the
same period of time, stopped at little more $4 billion, less than China
invested in 2008 alone.
Xinhua, China’s chief news
agency, reports that Chinese investments have focused on “property development,
mineral business and processing plants, motorcycle assembly factories, gold
mining, rice mill and garment factories.”
Bilateral trade figures have
dramatically improved, too. According to Xinhua, in 2011 bilateral trade
between Cambodia and China amounted to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, a staggering
73.5 percent increase from a year earlier.
Cozy relations with Beijing,
however, have also put the Cambodian government under significant pressure,
especially due to disputes over the South China Sea, whose islands are claimed
in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and
Brunei. The Cambodian government finds itself in an awkward position as other
ASEAN countries, and especially Vietnam and the Philippines, see it as a close
ally of the Chinese government ready to act to the detriment of their
interests.
In July 2012, a clash occurred
while discussing the Code Of Conduct, a document which was supposed to prevent
conflicts among members. The participants could not find an agreement on
whether to mention the South China Sea in the final communiqué, with Cambodia
and the Philippines struggling with each other. As a result, for the first time
in 45 years, no final statement was issued and, most importantly, the whole
affair turned out to be lost chance to work on a set of rules to avoid future clashes.
In November last year, tensions
again flared up during the ASEAN summit hosted by Cambodia in Phnom Penh. The
Cambodian side argued that members had reached a consensus not to
internationalize – read “not to call in outside power in general and the United
States in particular” – the South China Sea issue, but Philippines authorities
contended that such a point was never agreed upon. According to Reuters,
Philippine President Benigno Aquino stated that “there were several views
expressed [..] on ASEAN unity which we did not realize would be translated into
an ASEAN consensus,” and added that “this was not our understanding. The ASEAN
route is not the only route for us. As a sovereign state, it is our right to
defend our national interests.”
Given such a background, it is
not a surprise that the recent military deal attracted the media’s attention.
The Bangkok Post, for one, has written that while there has not been any formal
reaction from neighboring countries, “Hanoi [..] is likely to view the military
training of the Cambodian army with major skepticism, if not outright
opposition”. The article also contends that “for Thailand, any upgrade to the
Cambodian army will almost certainly result in both increasing hostility from
the ultra-nationalist ‘patriots’ involved in the dispute surrounding the Preah
Vihear temple. There are likely to be calls from the military to upgrade Thai
forces facing Cambodia, the only country with which Thailand has had armed
conflicts in recent years.”
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