KUALA LUMPUR (Bloomberg: The US and Cambodia will revive flagship military exercises for the first time in eight years, the latest sign of warming ties following a flurry of deals between the two sides, including a Trump-backed peace accord with Thailand.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the return of the Angkor Sentinel drills after a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart Friday on the sidelines of a security summit in Malaysia. The defense exercises were suspended in 2017 at a time when Washington criticized Phnom Penh for worsening human rights problems and a deterioration of democracy.
The announcement caps off a milestone week for US relations with Cambodia including securing a coveted trade deal during Trump’s three-nation Asian tour. The US president also oversaw the signing of a peace accord to ease a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand that killed dozens earlier this year.
The defense chiefs also discussed Hegseth joining a future US naval ship visit to Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, according to a readout. Washington has long worried that China would be given exclusive military access to the naval base in the Gulf of Thailand as part of a secret deal inked six years ago, and has claimed it will eventually become Beijing’s first outpost in the Indo-Pacific region.
Separately, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said that he and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel pledged to boost cooperation during a phone call. Cambodia, along with Myanmar and Laos, are home to transnational criminal networks that siphon billions from victims across the world.
Cambodian officials have said the country has tightened anti-money laundering rules and is ready to clamp down on scam centers as it seeks to be a credible member of the international financial industry.
"As a next step, we have agreed to continue strengthening cooperation between the Cambodian Security Agency and the FBI to maintain safety and security for our people and our country,” Hun Manet wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.
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