In 2019 the Wall Street Journal reported a secret deal between Phnom Penh and Beijing, in which the Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, reportedly agreed to give China access to the base.
Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Imagesįor some years the US has alleged China intends to have a military presence at the base. We encourage Beijing to be transparent about its intent and to ensure that its activities support regional security and stability.”Ĭambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, shows the indelible ink on his finger after casting his vote in local elections at the weekend. “We’ve been aware of Beijing’s activity at Ream for some time. “We are in regular contact with the Cambodian government and we have been consistently assured that no foreign military will be granted exclusive access at Ream,” Albanese told reporters in Makassar. The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who was visiting Indonesia on Tuesday, said he was concerned about the reports and called on the Chinese government to be open about its intentions. You can’t do that without pushing the US out and having foreign bases around the area.” China will want to become the leading strategic power in Asia, it may even want to become the domination power in Asia. “It’s a kind of microcosm really of the broader trend in the region, which is that strategic and military power is shifting from the US and towards China. “Its practical value is that it would allow China to deploy more readily its warships and coastguard vessels around the region, and to simply have a bit more presence, where once it would need to sail very long distances. “It’s fairly early days, so we don’t know what the capacity of the facility will be,” Roggeveen said.
Sam Roggeveen, the director of the Lowy Institute’s international security programme, said the new information, and particularly the apparent confirmation by a Beijing official, “strengthens the case that this is actually happening”. The official said the area would also be used by scientists, and that China was not involved in any activities on the Cambodian portion of the base. The Post said a Beijing official confirmed the Chinese military would use a “portion” of the base but denied it would have exclusive use. One western official told the paper that expansion plans finalised in 2020 called for the Chinese military to have “exclusive use of the northern portion of the base, while their presence would remain concealed”. Such a presence would mark a significant expansion in China’s military access in the Indo-Pacific, where it currently only has one naval base, in the east African country of Djibouti.Ĭiting unnamed western and Chinese officials, the Post reported on Tuesday that the base will host the Chinese military in its northern section.
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