Phnom Penh Post
General Qi Jianguo,
deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army (L), and
Cambodia’s Deputy Defence Minister Moeung Samphan (R) shake hands after
signing an agreement, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. Photograph: Heng
Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
One day before today’s inauguration of a Chinese-funded military
institute in Kampong Speu, China’s top brass met with their Cambodian
counterparts to pledge increased military assistance.
Yesterday’s meeting between General Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of staff
of the People’s Liberation Army, and Defense Minister General Tea Banh,
among others, was just the latest in a series of overtures offered to
the Kingdom’s armed forces.
While details of a memorandum of understanding signed yesterday were
not available, Banh told reporters that the government requested more
military training and equipment from China.
“This will contribute to assisting RCAF to increase its capacity in the national defence sector,” he said.
Today, Prime Minister Hun Sen is set to inaugurate the Phnom Sruoch
district facility, an extension of the Combined Arms Officer School
Thlok Tasek, another Chinese-funded initiative dating back to 2002.
“We are pleased to support Cambodia for national development,” Qi told reporters yesterday.
At today’s ceremony, Qi and Hun Sen will address a class of Cambodian infantrymen who recently completed training in China.
The inauguration comes just days after Cambodian military officials
announced a small fleet of Chinese-made Z-9 choppers would arrive within
months.
The growing defence cooperation is unsurprising, said political
scientist Carlyle Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New
South Wales.
“[The institute] makes for a breakthrough in China’s defence
cooperation in Southeast Asia... China already trains limited numbers
[of Southeast Asian officers] at their higher defence university...
which is similar to the model the US has done,” he said.
“This is an opportunity for China to shape the future of Cambodia’s military.”
In the late 1990s, Hun Sen’s eldest son, two-star general Hun Manet,
became the first Cambodian to be enrolled at the elite US Military
Academy at West Point.
But while the US has traditionally been the major provider of
military aid (funding tripled last year to $18.2 million), China is
increasingly making inroads, said Thayer.
“You now have the US and China competing for Cambodia,” he said.
“It makes China the second-most important player.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Vong Sokheng at
sokheng.vong@phnompenhpost.com
With assistance from
Stuart White
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