Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet met with his Vietnamese counterpart on an official visit to boost relations between the neighboring Southeast Asian countries that are close but historically complicated.
Around twelve months ago, the U.S. Defense Department was confident enough in its intelligence to state in its annual “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” that the Ream Naval Base in Cambodia “will be the PRC’s first overseas base in the Indo-Pacific.” But give an eye to the Pentagon’s same report for this year, published in late October. There are seven mentions of Cambodia, but not one states that Ream will be a Chinese base. In fact, the Pentagon’s only comments this time are that “in June 2022, a PRC official confirmed that the PLA would have access to parts of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base.”
The UK, US and Canada announced a package of sanctions against Cambodian individuals and entities, freezing their assets and travel, as a result of alleged human rights violations, ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10.
Although the US aims to see an increase in American investment in Cambodia, the rule of law and corruption form a barrier to attracting investment from US companies to Cambodia, according to Melissa A Brown, the US deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of East and Pacific Affairs.
