Cambodia yesterday gave an unprecedented media tour of a strategically crucial naval base as authorities try to knock down a report of a secret deal allowing Chinese warships to dock there.
The Ream Naval Base near Sihanoukville is on the Gulf of Thailand with easy access to the South China Sea.
The Wall Street Journal this week reported that a deal had been struck allowing China to dock its warships and store weapons at the base.
Scores of reporters were taken from Phenom Penh to Ream on a brief government-steered tour.
They were driven in vans donated by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army with thanks written in Khmer on the back windows.
Billboards on the approach to the base in Chinese and Khmer advertised soon-to-be-built restaurants and hotels.
After the whistle-stop tour, Cambodian Ministry of National Defense spokesman Chhum Socheat told reporters that the kingdom had “nothing to hide.”
Reporters were shown a number of outhouses and a jetty where several Cambodian-flagged patrol ships had docked.
It was unclear where the blue-gray boats, armed with canons, had come from, although China has donated several warships over the past few years.
“You [journalists] from national and international media are our eyes and noses... We have nothing to hide from foreigners who still accuse us of doing this or that,” Chhum Socheat said, adding that satellite imagery would prove if Chinese ships had used the base.
The US embassy in Phnom Penh has said that Cambodia suddenly withdrew a request for help to upgrade the base.
“This causes us to wonder if the Cambodian leadership’s plans for Ream Naval Base include the possible hosting of foreign military assets and personnel on Cambodian soil,” an embassy official said on Thursday, requesting anonymity.
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