Cambodia and US to restart military drills in 2027

Cambodia and the United States will restart joint military exercises in 2027, Prime Minister Hun Manet said Friday, after a decade-long pause in the drills.

Hun Manet announced the planned return of the Angkor Sentinel exercise after meeting Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's top policy official, in Phnom Penh. The Cambodian leader said in a Facebook post that the exercise would be “a bridge to build a close friendship between the armies of the two countries”.

The United States and Cambodia held joint exercises for seven years before Phnom Penh scrapped them in early 2017, months after holding its first Golden Dragon drills with China's military.

Cambodia has close ties with Beijing and has received billions of dollars in Chinese investment. Cambodia and China held their largest joint military exercises last year, involving Chinese military hardware including artillery, warships and robot battle dogs.

The United States has voiced concern about the Chinese-funded renovation of Cambodia's Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, saying it could give China a strategic position near the disputed South China Sea. Cambodian leaders have repeatedly denied that the base is for use by any single foreign power.

Colby said Thursday that the United States was looking to expand its defence partnership with Cambodia in a “pragmatic” way designed to help Cambodia secure its territorial integrity and sovereignty.