Cambodia confirms razing US-built military facility at Ream Naval Base

Cambodia has confirmed it demolished a US-built military facility on its largest naval base amid concern in Washington that the Southeast Asia country is planning to host the Chinese military.

“We relocated the facility to a new spot. We cannot keep it anymore and the building is already old,” Tea Banh, Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, told AFP on Sunday, confirming that the building at Ream Naval Base had been demolished last month. 

The Tactical Headquarters of the National Committee for Maritime Security had been inaugurated in 2012. 

Satellite images released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies this week showed the facility had been razed.

Last year, the Pentagon had asked the Cambodian government to explain why it had rejected an offer to repair the base which is located southeast of the port city of Sihanoukville, center of a Chinese-run Special Economic Zone.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has repeatedly insisted that Cambodia’s constitution forbids any foreign military base in the country, but said aid from Beijing will fund the Ream Naval Base’s development.

Tea Banh said the new facility, which is currently under construction about 30 kilometers north of Ream, will be “far better.”

The Wall Street Journal reported last year on a secret draft deal allowing China to dock warships at the naval base. The premier has dismissed the report as false.

The Ream base has come under the spotlight because of its strategic location in the Gulf of Thailand, which would provide easy access to the South China Sea, where Beijing is locked in territorial disputes with several regional countries. 

Cambodia is one of China’s closest regional allies and has received billions of dollars worth of Chinese aid.

The country has been wary of superpower competition since the 1970s, when it was caught in the middle of fighting between US and Chinese proxy forces.

Last weekend, the Cambodian premier complained about the unjust meddling in the affairs of “peace-loving” countries in the region.

“As a peace-loving small country committed to democratic principles, Cambodia can play its part in the international community only if it is assured that the rules governing the international system are fairly applied,” he said in an online speech to the UN General Assembly.

“Unfortunately, all too often, depending on the political ambition and hidden opportunistic agenda of some countries, Cambodia had to deal with hypocritical double-standards, biased and politically motivated decisions, in short, injustice,” he added.