PHNOM PENH (AFP): Cambodia and the United States will restart long-delayed joint military exercises next year, Prime Minister Hun Manet said Friday, seeking to mend ties strained by Phnom Penh's closeness to China.
The announcement of the first joint drills in a decade followed a meeting between Hun Manet and the Pentagon's top policy official, Elbridge Colby, in Phnom Penh on Friday.
The resumption of military exercise Angkor Sentinel in 2027 will be "a bridge to build a close friendship between the armies of the two countries", the Cambodian leader wrote in a Facebook post.
He hailed "positive progress in Cambodia-US relations including the national defence sector".
The United States and Cambodia staged joint exercises for seven years before Phnom Penh scrapped them in early 2017, just months after holding its first Golden Dragon drills with the Chinese military.
Cambodia and China held their largest-ever joint military exercises last year, involving advanced Chinese military hardware including artillery, warships and robot battle dogs.
Phnom Penh has long been one of Beijing's staunchest allies in Southeast Asia, receiving billions of dollars in investments.
In recent years, the United States has voiced concerns about the Chinese-funded renovation of Cambodia's Ream Naval Base, located off its southern coast in the Gulf of Thailand.
Washington says the base -- which was originally built partly with US funds -- could give China a key strategic position near the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.
Cambodian leaders have repeatedly denied the base is for use by any single foreign power and in January, a US warship made a port call there.
In an online briefing with journalists on Thursday, Colby said the United States was "looking forward to working to expand the defence partnership with Cambodia".
This would be done in a "pragmatic" spirit, "designed to help Cambodia secure its territorial integrity and sovereignty", he said. -- AFP
