Partnership of convenience: Ream Naval Base and the Cambodia–China convergence
“Maritime challenges from Thailand and Vietnam are the key elements driving Cambodia to modernise the RCN. Phnom Penh and Bangkok are contesting a maritime area of 27,000 square kilometres in the Gulf of Thailand, known as the Thailand–Cambodia Overlapping Claims Area (OCA). The OCA is believed to contain up to 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 500 million barrels of oil. Cambodia’s main maritime concern regarding Vietnam is directed at the latter’s illegal and unregulated fishing operations in Cambodian waters.”
“It is likely that China’s access to and control over Ream Naval Base will fall somewhere between Djibouti and Hambantota, similar to the preferential access afforded to Russia and the United States at Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay and Singapore’s Changi Naval Base, respectively. In part, this may be because Ream Naval Base is likely to be of limited strategic value to China as a means to project naval power in the South China Sea. The base’s location in the Gulf of Thailand makes it less important than China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea.”
This article in full: