If not for
military use, what else is this airbase in the midst of the jungle being built
for? Eco-tourists landing there in their thousands daily to indulge in
bird-watching?!
Whereas many
states in the region play the great powers off each other for their national
security and benefit, Hun Sen plays China and Vietnam off for his own personal
self-preservation and gains to the detriment of Cambodia. The recently ratified
Supplemental Border Treaty and on-going military exercise in the province of
Svay Rieng [packaged as “humanitarian/disaster emergency-rescue exercise”!]
among other concessions to Hanoi are his way of assuaging their growing anxiety
over increased Chinese activities and influence in the country. In fact, in
response to this Chinese military infrastructure build-up on the South coast of
Cambodia, the Vietnamese have already started to fortified their military defence
on the island of Koh Tral – ‘Phu Qoc’ in Vietnamese – just another piece of
Cambodian territory formally ceded to Vietnam in the same series of border
Treaties between the two countries - to the grief and anguish of most Cambodians.
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