Next month, China and Cambodia are expected to kick off the latest iteration of a bilateral military exercise between them. While some specifics remain unclear, the annualized drills will nonetheless be another demonstration of the growing significance of defense ties between the two countries amid wider domestic and regional dynamics.
As I have observed before in these pages, while Cambodia has long had a defense relationship with China – with Beijing being the Southeast Asian state’s largest donor of military aid – the security aspect of ties between the two countries has nonetheless come under intensified scrutiny over the past few years amid wider developments, including Cambodia’s tighter embrace of Beijing amid its deteriorating rights record and fears of Chinese military facilities in Cambodia.
