The US military’s senior officer in the Pacific said Saturday Cambodia could see more military assistance from the US if it proceeds with reforms of its armed forces, but he was not specific on what kind of aid is likely to materialize.
After meetings with Cambodian military officials, Admiral Dennis Blair, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific military forces, acknowledged unspecified needs within RCAF, saying “clearly they have more [duties] than they have resources.”
Blair said better training and development of RCAF’s officer corps should be a priority for Cambodia, after which “hardware and equipment will fall in place.”
US Ambassador Kent Wiedemann stressed, though, that this equipment will be primarily used for “nation-building” and funneled into roads and other infrastructure projects.
Blair arrived Friday in Cambodia as part of a regional tour and spent Saturday observing efforts to recover the remains of US soldiers on Koh Tang. A search is under way on the island for the remains of one US Marine killed in 1975 after a botched US attack on Khmer Rouge forces there left 18 US soldiers missing. US recovery teams have been able to identify nine of the missing from remains found on or near the island.
While visiting Malaysia before coming to Cambodia, Blair discussed regional security, citing “areas of lawlessness in this part of the world, which we should cooperate to eliminate.”
He said Saturday that regional military cooperation, from search and rescue missions to peace enforcement operations against “common threats,” would become more important in Cambodia.
“I would look eventually for Cambodia to take its place with other countries in the region who are able to work together in that way,” said Blair, who left Sunday for Laos.
Blair’s arrival in Cambodia marked the first visit by a senior-ranking US military official since 1997, when bilateral aid to this country was cut off after fighting broke out between forces loyal to then-co-Prime Minister Hun Sen and troops belonging to Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
