Washington suspects Phnom Penh to facilitate China’s access to the Gulf of Thailand by opening its REAM naval base.
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The United States has decided to increase their pressure on Cambodia by imposing on Thursday, December 9, an arms sales embargo on the grounds that recent developments in this country were “contrary to interest in security interest national policy and foreign policy “. His relationship with China is explicitly targeted – as well as the prosecution of legal proceedings, in the last two years, against representatives of civil society and members of the opposition.
“We urge the Cambodian government to make significant progress in the fight against corruption and human rights violations, and to work to reduce the influence of the army of the [People’s Republic of China] In Cambodia, which threatens regional and global security, “said the Secretary of State for Trade, Gina Raimondo, in a statement. Massive Chinese investments in Cambodian coastal provinces, on the edge of the Gulf of Thailand, in the form of tourist projects or infrastructure and concessions of fifty or ninety-nine years, are a source of concern for Washington. Beijing suspects of wanting to bring virtual strategic support points for armed forces in case of conflict.
Repression of the opposition
The reproaches of the Americans also concern the lack of transparency of Cambodians when the work carried out by Chinese companies inside the Cambodian naval base of Ream, where two structures offered by the Americans in the early 2010s have been disassembled in 2020 without them informed.
The subject had led the Assistant Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, to request clarifications to the Cambodian authorities in June, and to solicit a field visit by the US military attaché in Phnom Penh. Invited on the basis, the latter had put an end to the visit when he had found that his guests did not show him everything. “Cambodia is put under pressure, it feels unjustly criticized for something normal, which concerns our sovereignty, explained to this incident, on 8 October, Kin Phea, Director General of the Institute of Relations international academy of Cambodia. Do you believe that Americans show us everything if one visits one of their bases, or the CIA [the central intelligence agency], or the pentagon? “
In November, the Treasury Department announced penalties against two Cambodian military officials for inflating in 2020 and 2021 the costs of a construction project in the REAM naval base and used the funds for their own advantage.
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