A Cambodian army soldier looks at Chinese military vehicles displayed before a hand over ceremony at a military air base in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2010. Pic: AP. |
Jan 29, 2013
By Michele Penna
AsianCorrespondant.com
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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