US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s upcoming visit to Cambodia, scheduled for June 4, marks the first official bilateral trip by an American defense chief in recent years.
Predictably, Western media have already oversimplified Austin’s visit by focusing solely on the controversy surrounding China’s role in upgrading the Ream Naval Base. In the singular context of Sino-US rivalry for regional influence, it is easy to portray China’s assistance in modernizing Cambodia’s navy and port infrastructure as an attempt to establish a military presence in the country.
That narrative disregards Cambodia’s agency and the genuine challenges the country faces in upgrading its military and procuring modern naval vessels and equipment to keep pace with neighbors like Thailand and Vietnam. In that contest, Cambodia has logically turned to China – one of the few viable sources for such acquisitions at prices Phnom Penh can afford.
In full: https://asiatimes.com/2024/06/austin-to-cambodia-opens-the-way-for-big-defense-reset/
