NVDB005_-_CH_3.003._Cambodia’s_Embrace_on_BRI_and_Its_Geopolitical_Implications_-_Dr._Neak-2

21 — DP Vol. 05

Regional Security Dilemma: Trends, Directions, and Illusion

Dr. Neak Chandarith is currently the Director of Institute for International Studies and Public Policy, Royal University of Phnom Penh.

He is also the founding director of Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center at RUPP. He obtained his bachelor of education (TEFL) from FLC (IFL), RUPP, Master of Education (TESOL) from Latrobe University, Master of Political Science from Kobe University, and Ph.D. in Political Science from Australian National University (ANU). He is also a Member of the Board of Directors at Cambodia Development Center. His research interests center on Belt and Road Initiative, Mekong-Lancang Mechanism and state-society relations in Southeast Asia.

Lim Chhay is currently Program Manager in charge of foreign policy projects at the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation Cambodia (KAS). He obtained a bachelor’s degree in International Studies with Honours and Distinction thesis award from the Department of International Studies (DIS), Royal University of Phnom Penh in 2020. His thesis centered on US-China strategic competition and Cambodia’s foreign policy. He is concurrently a research fellow for EU-ASEAN Think-Tank Dialogue funded by the EU Commission. He is a part of the editorial team for publications at KAS Cambodia. Chhay used to serve as an assistant and interpreter to the spokesperson of the Royal Government of Cambodia and later on worked with the United Nations Development Programme in charge of communications and knowledge management under the policy and innovation unit. He was a Representative of ASEAN Delegation to China-ASEAN Youth Summit 2021 by Peking University. Chhay is also an alumni of China Foreign Affairs University’s international youth program in 2019, being awarded Best Delegate and Outstanding Delegation.

Overview

Cambodia-China relations have reached a new, historic and strategic stage by 2020. With the pair’s engagement from the first unofficial meeting between the then-King Sihanouk and Premier Zou Enlai in April 1955 at the Bandung Conference to the official estab- lishment of diplomatic relations in 1958, the friendship had upgraded into a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’ by 2010. With the commitment to deepening bilateral cooperation with China, Cambodia, in 2019, signed the Action Plan on Building China-Cam- bodia Community of Shared Future (2019-2023) in which both leaders would put more effort into consol- idating cooperation in political security, the economy, commerce, socio-cultural tourism, the environment, and in all aspects of people-to-people exchange. This interlocking relationship did not happen by chance. Instead, it has been a well-crafted, elaborate process of friendship cultivation and specific cooperation with Cambodia. This has included the rapprochement of Cambodia with China after the 1990s, the upgrading of bilateral relations into a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2010, and surpassing Japan as the largest Official Development Aid (ODA) and soft loans provider in 2013.

Based on this consolidated web of relationships, Beijing has been the bastion of various coordinating activities to socialize Cambodian political elites into embracing the main political and socio-economic values of the BRI, as well as the so-called ‘Community of Shared Future for Mankind’, an increasingly common

Chinese slogan. Exemplifying this, in a bilateral summit commemorating the 60th-anniversary of relations, both sides were committed to working towards a Cambodia-China Community of Common Destiny with strategic significance, continuing to maintain close high-level contacts, enhancing the role of the inter-governmental coordination committee, coordi- nating defense and law enforcement sectors at all levels, accelerating the implementation of the BRI and strengthening coordination and cooperation within the frameworks of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC), ASEAN-China Cooperation and other mecha- nisms.

Small States and Their Strategic Options Concerning the BRI: The (Economic) Case of Cambodia

The fast-changing and evolving geopolitical landscape as seen through the strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington has been a complex issue for decades and will continue to intensify in the future. Cambodia, as a small state, has experienced uncertainty where her foreign policy core values are being challenged. What are the core values that Cambodia is pursuing? What long-term ambition does she aim to achieve? How does the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) complement her ability to achieve such an ambition?

In the current context, economic diplomacy consti- tutes one of the main pillars of Cambodia’s foreign