Boost to Sino-Cambodian ties
Amid high-level Beijing meeting, analysts laud cooperation as ‘role model’ for bilateral relations
President Xi Jinping and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed on Feb 10 to build up an all-round cooperation framework to underline the increasingly closer ties between the two Asian neighbors.
Xi met with Hun Sen at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Noting that Hun Sen’s last trip to China was in February 2020 when the Chinese people were fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi said, “It gives me great pleasure to work with you to realize our three-year appointment and open a new era of building a China-Cambodia community with a shared future at the start of spring.”
The Cambodian prime minister said he was glad to be received as the first foreign leader to visit China after the Spring Festival.
During the meeting, Xi suggested that the two sides deepen strategic communication and strengthen exchanges of governance experience, prioritize industrial development, promote agricultural cooperation and carry out regular operations to jointly crack down on cross-border crime.
He also said that China will encourage more companies to invest and prosper in Cambodia, offer help in the construction of the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative, and support the country’s transportation infrastructure construction.
China will give preference to resuming and increasing direct flights between the two countries to encourage tourism cooperation, he added.
On Feb 11, the two sides issued a joint statement, vowing to build a high-quality, high-level and highstandard China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era to bring more benefits to the two peoples and contribute more positive energy to regional peace, stability and development.
Experts said the Sino-Cambodian move to build an all-round cooperation framework sets an example for the world when some countries are practicing hegemony to disturb stateto-state relations and interfere in the existing international order.
Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University, said China and Cambodia have proved with their cooperation that all countries are closely connected within a shared community, with their security and development intertwined.
“Faced with some countries’ attempts to drive a wedge between China and other regional countries, it is important to promote regional integration through practical cooperation and unite with each other to resist such confrontation guided by a Cold War mentality,” he said.
Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the special and unbreakable ties between Cambodia and China are a “unique role model” of bilateral relations that can be replicated both regionally and globally.
As 2023 marks the Year of Cambodia-China Friendship, the strong commitment and great efforts made by the leaders and peoples of the two countries underpin that the building of the Cambodia-China community with a shared future is a reality, he told China Daily.
Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, “Cambodia has stood steadfastly with China at all times, as demonstrated by Hun Sen’s trip three years ago when other countries were busy evacuating their citizens from China”.
Noting that Cambodia was the first country to sign a document to build with China a community with a shared future, Xu said the ChinaCambodia relationship serves as a role model for China building “a global community with a shared future” with more neighbors and partners around the world.
The Feb 10 meeting was the latest of a dozen in-person and phone talks between Xi and Hun Sen.
Gu Jiayun, director of Beijing Foreign Studies University’s Center for Cambodian Studies, said, “The leaders’ frequent exchanges demonstrated the two countries’ high level of political mutual trust and their strong will to maintain strategic communications and further practical cooperation.”
According to Gu, agricultural cooperation between the two countries has helped to promote the modernization, technological upgrading and industrialization of Cambodia’s production and processing of agricultural goods.
During the meeting with Hun Sen on Feb 10, Xi said that China and Cambodia could build a cooperation framework in politics, production capacity, agriculture, energy, security and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
He told the Cambodian prime minister that China is ready to share opportunities, seek cooperation and promote development with Cambodia, as China continues on its path to modernization.
Statistics from China’s Ministry of Commerce showed that bilateral trade hit a record $16.02 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 17.5 percent. China has been Cambodia’s largest trading partner for 11 consecutive years.
“China firmly supports Cambodia in safeguarding national sovereignty and security, firmly supports Cambodia in steadily advancing major domestic political agendas and economic and social development, and resolutely opposes external forces interfering in Cambodia’s internal affairs,” Xi said.
The two leaders also exchanged views on issues of common concern. Noting that development is not the right of just a few countries, Xi pointed out that engaging in ideological confrontation, politicizing and weaponizing trade and technology exchanges, forceful decoupling and containment of other countries are acts of hegemony and do not have people’s support.
Hun Sen said he wishes to extend a message that the Cambodian people always firmly stand with the Chinese people. He thanked China for supporting his country in choosing its own path of development, fighting the pandemic and dealing with other difficulties.
On Feb 10, Premier Li Keqiang held a welcoming ceremony for Hun Sen and they witnessed the signing of a dozen cooperative agreements. Li said China will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to Cambodia, and called on the two countries to keep supporting each other on issues that concern their respective core interests and major concerns.
Xu, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that besides agriculture, China-Cambodia cooperation in construction of infrastructure has offered a strong boost to Cambodia’s modernization.
The China-invested Phnom PenhSihanoukville Expressway, which started operations in October, is the first-ever expressway in Cambodia and one of the many landmark achievements of the two countries under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Xu said the road had brought hope. “The improvement of Cambodia’s road and rail systems will undoubtedly help build up people’s confidence for a better life,” he said.
Apart from being the largest trading partner, China is also Cambodia’s largest source of investment.
The two countries are expected to deliver more benefits by further implementing their bilateral free trade agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, both of which took effect in January 2022.
Cambodia’s close relationship with China has drawn criticism from some Western countries. However, Hun Sen has on many occasions defended his nation’s position, saying, “If I don’t rely on China, who will I rely on”?
In an interview with China Central Television before heading to Beijing for the visit, the Cambodian prime minister said, “We can invite those critics to visit the bridges that have been built across the rivers and ask them, ‘If not China, who else will help build these bridges?’”
He stressed that building a community with a shared future is not only in the interest of his country, but also of all member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Gu, from Beijing Foreign Studies University, said visits by Cambodians to China for travel and study are expected to resume after China optimized its COVID-19 response measures.
“This will help facilitate mutual understanding between the two peoples, especially the young generations, and build a bridge of mutual learning,” he said.