Cambodian defense officials welcomed a United States Navy littoral combat ship to the Southeast Asian nation’s main deep seaport in mid-December 2024, saying the port call would “strengthen and expand the bonds of friendship.”
The Independence-variant USS Savannah docked just days before Adm. Samuel Paparo, Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, arrived in Cambodia for talks on promoting cooperation to enhance Indo-Pacific stability. He met with leaders including Prime Minister Hun Manet, who previously served as Cambodia’s Army chief and is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
The Savannah is among nearly 30 U.S. naval vessels to visit the nation of 17 million people since 2007 and the first in eight years, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported, citing Cambodia’s National Defence Ministry.
The ship’s five-day stop in Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand in the nation’s southwest “demonstrates the growth of the U.S. and Cambodia relationship, rooted in strong historical and cultural linkages,” the U.S. Navy stated.
“Cambodia is a key partner for us in the region, and this port visit provides us an important opportunity to meet with local leaders,” said Cmdr. Daniel Sledz, the Savannah’s commanding officer.
The port is near Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, where the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been funding infrastructure projects — investments that have raised concern among Allies and Partners about Beijing’s motives.
A U.S.-based think tank reported in 2022 that dredging at the base could allow larger military ships to dock. It cited earlier reports that Cambodia had granted the PRC access to Ream in exchange for funding, which Phnom Penh has denied. Two PRC military frigates docked at the base in late 2023, but Cambodian officials said they were there to train local forces, CNN reported.
Such worries are heightened by Beijing’s increasing belligerence in the South China Sea, where it persists in pushing its arbitrary and discredited territorial claims. PRC crews frequently harass civilian and military vessels of other claimant states, including within their respective exclusive economic zones. Those actions risk sparking a conflict in the vital global trade route.
During his visit to the Sihanoukville port, Paparo said the U.S. is dedicated to a bilateral relationship “founded on mutual respect, sovereignty and equality,” The Phnom Penh Post newspaper reported. “And so, as Cambodia embarks upon its own development, Cambodia has its own choices to make as it builds out Ream and its own relationships through the region,” he said.
