On December 3, 2023, Cambodian Defense Minister Di Siha visited the Zhong** ship docked at Ream Naval Base with former Defense Minister Di Banh. On social media, Di Siha said that this was to prepare for the training of the Cambodian Navy. The picture accompanying the post shows that at least two medium-** ships are docked.
Foreign media said on December 6 that the Chinese first-class ship docked at the base for the first time, and expressed concern that the base could play a potential role in China's expansion of its overseas military footprint.
Cambodia's Ream Naval Base is located in the Gulf of Thailand and is strategically important both militarily and economically. The base is located in the east of Sihanoukville City, Sihanoukville Province, southwest Cambodia, and the Sihanoukville Airport built with Chinese assistance in the north, which is a strategic location of Cambodia's sea and air and an overseas ** hub.
Militarily, it is the gateway to Cambodia, and once breached, Cambodia will open the door. The value to the outside world should not be overlooked, as it is close to the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea to the east.
Since 2010, Cambodia's Ream Naval Base has been a Xi venue for joint maritime readiness training between Cambodia and the United States. The United States has always coveted this base in Cambodia and wants to develop it into a US military base in Southeast Asia.
In 2012, the United States helped Cambodia build a building on the Ream Naval Base, and five years later, a small building was built, all in the name of aid.
In 2018, the United States offered to fund a plan to help Cambodia upgrade the base's facilities, but Cambodia refused. Cambodia has always been wary of the ambitions of the United States to build a military base here.
The United States blamed Cambodia for the human rights issue, and Cambodia was strongly dissatisfied with the accusations and intervention of the United States, and directly demolished the two buildings that the United States had helped build. After that, the United States continued to stir up trouble, and Cambodia ignored it, and it seems that small countries also have tempers.
Subsequently, Cambodia and China signed a mutual agreement under which China will assist Cambodia in upgrading the Ream Naval Base. Foreign media began to use this agreement to play on the topic again, saying that Cambodia and China had reached a secret agreement, and China would fund the renovation of the Ream Naval Base facilities in exchange for the exclusive right to use the base. It's really salty and don't worry about eating radish, so what? Isn't it?
In June 2022, the China-aided upgrading project of the base officially started. Cambodia's decision to allow China to develop a naval base in Ream has unnerved Washington, which fears it would give Beijing a new outpost near the South China Sea.
Gregory Pauline, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the United States, said that the main concern of the United States and its partners is the possible installation of radar equipment by China at the Ream naval base.
Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian once said that the Ream Naval Base project is the result of mutual respect and consultation between China and Cambodia on an equal footing, and is a symbol of the iron-clad friendship between the Chinese and Cambodian militaries.
Gods may do what cattle may not. In fact, Ambassador Wang Wentian's expressions are superfluous, and wordlessness is the greatest contempt...