Despite specialists predicting that ASEAN nations would not pick sides between the US and China, Cambodia seems to be cozying as a lot as its highly effective Chinese neighbour, with officials even going for a dip in the sea collectively.
Cambodia’s Minister of Defense Tea Banh and Chinese Ambassador Wang Wentian have been spotted bathing in the sea collectively after the opening ceremony of a naval base constructed by China in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville province earlier this month. The Ream Naval Base is China’s first naval facility in mainland Southeast Asia.
Ream Naval Base is considered to be a means for China to broaden its army patrols across the region. However, the thought that Cambodia is giving China particular army remedy has been called a “complete insult” by defense minister Tea Banh. Tea Banh says Cambodia is “independent, sovereign, and has the full proper to decide its future.”
Last month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited the White House in Washington for the primary time to attend the US-ASEAN Summit hosted by Joe Biden. The US President promised to develop America’s relationship with Cambodia and pursue widespread goals within the area. However, Hun Sen’s US visit was not welcomed by all, with one man throwing a shoe at the Cambodian Prime Minister.
Other ASEAN nations have not outwardly picked sides when it comes to ever-contentious US-Sino relations, but China has been offering money and help all around Southeast Asia in recent instances. Analysts say Washington should act quickly or else threat shedding out to Beijing.
The place of different Southeast Asian nations isn’t clear, with the exception of Myanmar, who weren’t invited to the US-ASEAN Summit in Washington in gentle of ongoing human rights abuses within the nation since the junta took power by military coup in February 2021.
SOURCE: Picnic