Cambodia is navigating a balancing act between major powers by allowing Japan to make naval visits at a China-linked base, according to observers who expect Phnom Penh to extend similar invitations to the United States.
Last Friday, Cambodia’s former prime minister and President of the Senate Hun Sen said Japan would be granted visitation rights to the Ream Naval Base, a facility the US is concerned could become a military outpost for China.
Just days earlier, an American warship docked at the southern port city of Cambodia’s Sihanoukville, just several kilometres away from Ream, in the first American military port call to one of Beijing’s closest regional allies in eight years.
