The US has ordered an arms embargo on Cambodia, citing deepening Chinese military influence, corruption, and human rights abuses by the government and armed forces in the Southeast Asian country.
The restrictions on defense-related goods and services took effect yesterday.
A notice in the Federal Register said that developments in Cambodia were “contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests.”
Photo: AP
The aim of the embargo is to ensure that defense-related items are not available to Cambodia’s military and intelligence services without advance review by the US government, it said.
The restrictions follow the US Department of the Treasury last month ordering sanctions against two senior Cambodian military officials for corruption, and come amid increasing concern about Beijing’s sway.
At the time, the US government issued an advisory cautioning US businesses about potential exposure to entities in Cambodia, such as its military, that “engage in human rights abuses, corruption and other destabilizing conduct.”
Cambodia branded those sanctions as “politically motivated” and said it would not discuss them with Washington.
The US has similar controls on exports of items that might be diverted to “military end users” in Myanmar, China, Russia and Venezuela.
US exports to Cambodia in 2019 totaled US$5.6 billion.
The US is the largest export market for Cambodia, a major garments manufacturing hub, but three-quarters of Cambodia’s imports are from China and other countries in Asia.
The US halted military assistance to Cambodia following a 1997 coup in which the country’s leader, Hun Sen, grabbed full power after ousting his joint prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Hun Sen remains prime minister.
In August 2005, former president George W. Bush waved the ban, citing Phnom Penh’s agreement to exempt US citizens in Cambodia from prosecution by the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.
Since direct military ties between the two countries were restored in 2006, the US has pledged millions of US dollars in military aid, initially to help improve its border security and peacekeeping operations.
China is Cambodia’s biggest investor and closest political partner. It was the chief backer of the murderous regime of Pol Pot in the 1970s and has long maintained strong relations with Hun Sen, who has ruled for more than 30 years and grown increasingly repressive.
Beijing’s support allows Cambodia to disregard Western concerns about its poor record in human and political rights, and in turn Cambodia generally supports Beijing’s geopolitical positions on issues such as its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The construction of new Chinese military facilities at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base is a point of strong contention with Washington.
Ream faces the Gulf of Thailand, adjacent to the South China Sea, where China has aggressively asserted its claim to virtually the entire strategic waterway. The US has refused to recognize China’s sweeping claims, and the US Navy’s 7th Fleet routinely sails past Chinese-held islands in what it terms freedom of navigation operations.
In recent years, Hun Sen’s government has cracked down on the political opposition, shut media outlets and forced hundreds of Cambodian politicians, human rights advocates and journalists into exile.
Human rights groups say the government has engaged in arbitrary arrests and other abuses, and worked to portray peaceful dissent over corruption, land rights and other issues as attempts to overthrow the government.
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