US expresses concern over China link to Cambodian base
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-expresses-concern-over-china-124830755.html
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Cambodia Naval BaseCambodian navy troop members stand on a navy boat at Ream Naval Base in Sihanoukville, southwestern of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 26, 2019. Cambodia's government on Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, officially denied suggestions that its demolition of a U.S.-funded facility at one of its naval bases is a signal that China will be granted basing privileges there, saying the work only involves planned infrastructure improvements. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) |
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The United States expressed disappointment Wednesday that Cambodia is tearing down a U.S.-funded building used for a maritime security program, and voiced concern that the action may be linked to the possible use of a Cambodian naval base by China’s military.
“Such a military presence would negatively impact the U.S.-Cambodia bilateral relationship and be disruptive and destabilizing to the Indo-Pacific region,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement distributed Wednesday by the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh.
Controversy over the Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand erupted more than a year ago, when The Wall Street Journal reported that an early draft of a reputed agreement seen by U.S. officials would allow China 30-year use of the base, where it would be able to post military personnel, store weapons and berth warships.
The State Department said the U.S. hopes Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will accept Washington’s offer of a dialogue to discuss how the United States “can support infrastructure at Ream that would benefit an independent Cambodia and all nations supportive of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Washington and Beijing are contending for influence in Southeast Asia. China is Cambodia’s closest political ally and main source of economic support, through aid and investment. Relations between Cambodia and the United States are rocky because of Washington’s criticisms of Hun Sen’s government for being undemocratic.
Concerns about China’s intentions for the area were heightened by a deal that gave a Chinese company control over a large part of the coastline, and construction of an airport on its land that appeared to be designed to accommodate military as well as civilian aircraft.
Hun Sen in June last year responded that China has not been given exclusive rights to use the base, while also saying that warships from all nations, including the United States, are welcome to dock there. He pointed out that Cambodia’s Constitution does not allow foreign military bases to be established on its soil.
However, the issue was resurrected last week with new reports in Western media about satellite photos showing the demolished facility.
Cambodia on Tuesday issued a statement saying that the demolition of the 7-year-old Tactical Command Headquarters at the Ream base and its relocation in a new building elsewhere was a planned upgrade because the existing facility was too small and lacked docking facilities, with limited capacity for training and other activities, It said the new facility would involve no change in function or relationships with foreign partners.
Hun Sen on Wednesday addressed the controversy again. Speaking at a ceremony opening an amusement park, he denied that Cambodia was allowing China to establish a base on its territory. He said that to clarify the issue, he has ordered the state television to rebroadcast, with English subtitles, his speech last year denying that China was being allowed to set up a base.
He also said he had ordered the Foreign Ministry to send an official diplomatic note to all foreign embassies in Cambodia to let them know his government’s position.
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Cambodian PM says naval base not just for China
China would not have exclusive access to a Cambodian naval base, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday, despite Beijing chipping in for upgrades after a US-funded facility was razed at the site last month.
The Ream base is strategically located in the Gulf of Thailand, providing ready access to the fiercely contested South China Sea -- a key global shipping route.
Beijing claims the majority of the resource-rich sea -- vying with six other countries.
"Other countries can also ask for permission to dock ships, re-fuel or hold (joint) exercises with Cambodia," Hun Sen said in a speech at the opening ceremony of a Chinese-owned theme park near the capital Phnom Penh.
Satellite images released by a Washington-based think tank last week showed a US-funded tactical naval headquarters on Cambodia's southern coast had been demolished.
An American embassy spokesman told AFP Wednesday that the US was "disappointed" by the move, adding the base had been a sign of US-Cambodia relations and was only seven years old.
"We have concerns that razing the facility may be tied to plans for hosting People's Republic of China military assets and personnel at Ream Naval Base."
Such a military presence "would negatively impact the US-Cambodia bilateral relationship and be disruptive and destabilizing to the Indo-Pacific region," the spokesman warned.
The Wall Street Journal last year reported on a secret draft deal allowing China to dock warships at the Ream base.
The Cambodian government in June denied this and maintained its foreign policy was independent.
Cambodia said the facility was simply being relocated about 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Ream as it had outgrown the former site.
Hun Sen has repeatedly insisted Cambodia's constitution forbids any foreign military base within its borders.
In recent years, he has tilted away from the US after Washington's criticism of alleged abuses by his government.
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Demolition of US-built facility at Southeast Asian base raises new fears about a secret Chinese military deal
A US-built facility at Cambodia's Ream Naval Base was demolished in September, according to satellite images published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The changes revive concerns about a secret deal between Cambodia and China that would permit Beijing to set up a military presence at the base, giving it a strategically valuable vantage point.
Cambodia demolished a US-built building at a naval base there last month, adding to concerns about a secret deal allowing China's military to use the base, even as Cambodia played down its actions.
Satellite images published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies last week showed the building, the Tactical Headquarters of the National Committee for Maritime Security, was torn down in September.
Another US-built facility nearby, the Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat Ramp and Boat Maintenance Facility, is still standing in the photos, taken on October 1.
Tea Banh, Cambodia's deputy prime minister and defense minister, confirmed the demolition but dismissed concerns. "We moved the facility to a new location. We can no longer keep it, and the building is already old," he told AFP on Sunday.
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| US-built facilities at Ream Naval Base, seen on October 1, 2020. CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/Planet |
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| The headquarters building as it stood on August 22. CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/Maxar |
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| The site of the demolished US-built headquarters building, seen on October 1. CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/Planet |
On Monday, Cambodia's government officially denied suggestions that the demolition meant China would get basing rights. Prime Minister Hun Sen said earlier this year that China had not been given exclusive rights to use the base, and Cambodian officials have repeatedly denied it, often calling it "fake news."
But the destruction revives concerns raised by a July 2019 Wall Street Journal report, citing US officials, describing a secret pact between Cambodia and China granting the latter access to the Ream Naval Base for decades, permitting Beijing to station military personnel, store weapons, and dock warships.
According to the report, China also agreed to build two piers, one for it and one for Cambodia, though experts said dredging would be needed for Chinese warships to use the facility.
On Saturday, the chief of Cambodia's navy general staff confirmed that China was supporting a project to expand the port and build a ship repair facility there. The plan included dredging to deepen waters around the base, the officer told Nikkei Asia.
US officials learned of talks between China and Cambodia in 2018, prompting a letter from Vice President Mike Pence expressing concern about a Chinese naval base there. Concerns were piqued months later, when Cambodia suddenly turned down a US offer to repair facilities at the base.
That decision "fuel[ed] speculation" about "larger plans" for Ream "that involve hosting Chinese military assets," Joseph Felter, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, wrote at the time.
Work at Ream isn't the only concern. The US and others have lobbied Cambodia not to let China's military use a new airport being built by a Chinese company about 40 miles northwest of Ream, a project that includes a seaport as well as tourist infrastructure.
The company building the airport has said it's for commercial use, but the runways are long enough for Chinese military aircraft, including bombers. While announcing sanctions against that Chinese firm, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there were "credible reports" that the facility could host the Chinese military.
Land reclamation underway at Ream Bay, August 22, 2020. CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/Maxar
Images published by CSIS's Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative also show land-reclamation work being done by a Chinese company 3 miles north of Ream. The company has been doing the work since February and is one of many Chinese firms that have leased large plots of land around the base.
Cambodia's government also said in February that the coastal area around Ream would be the site of a $16 billion tourist resort area.
The dredging for that land reclamation began only four days after the project was announced and may be related to port infrastructure for that resort project, AMTI said, adding that "with current facilities at Ream Naval Base only able to host small patrol ships, any large port development nearby bears watching."
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| The US-built Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat Ramp and Boat Maintenance Facility at Ream Naval Base, seen here shortly after it opened in July 2017. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific/Facebook |
Ream is near Sihanoukville, a focal point for Chinese investment. A Cambodian official said in February that the government wants it to develop it into a industrial and commercial hub "like Shenzhen" in China.
Beijing has provided support Cambodia's government even as other countries criticize its authoritarian record. US-Cambodia relations in particular have deteriorated in recent years.
AMTI director Greg Poling told Insider after The Journal report was published that a Chinese base at Ream was unlikely to resemble Beijing's South China Sea outposts, comparing it instead to China's base in Djibouti, its first overseas military installation, "which allows a modest Chinese rotational presence."
While it wouldn't give Beijing new power-projection capabilities in the South China Sea, a presence there would allow China to "project power, especially air power, over the Gulf of Thailand, Strait of Malacca, and Andaman Sea in a way it couldn't before," Poling added.
Other countries, including the US, have similar capabilities in the region, but the strategic implications of such a base worry Cambodia's neighbors.
The Malacca Strait is a major transit point between the Indian and Pacific oceans, including for the vast majority of China's energy imports. It has grown in importance amid competition between China and its neighbors, particularly India.
Indian concern about China's naval activity in the Indian Ocean has increased since Chinese submarines appeared there in 2014.
New Delhi has beefed up its naval and air capabilities and sought to improve its maritime awareness in the area, in part by boosting its presence in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a valuable vantage point near the Malacca Strait.
In late September, a US Navy P-8 Poseidon — considered the best sub-hunting plane in the world — landed at India's base there for refueling, a first for US aircraft under a US-India logistics agreement signed in 2016.
This story has been updated with Cambodia's official denial on Monday.
Read the original article on Business Insider
