China's new military base in Cambodia threatens India's maritime security - Here's why
NDTV reported on Saturday. The Chinese naval base in Cambodia is close to the Strain of Malacca, a crucial point that links the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea.
The naval base comes four years after Wall Street Journal reported that China has reached an agreement with Cambodia’s Ream naval base for what is expected to be China's next overseas military base. As per UK-based think tank Chatham House, the “satellite images of the port reveal the dramatic transformation the Cambodian naval base, near Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand, is undergoing.
This Chinese-funded project would extend Beijing’s military reach into the contested waters of Southeast Asia." Over the course of the last year and a half, it has been reported that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has dedicated a significant land area of 157 hectares for the construction of air defense structures, general command facilities, and a naval radar installation in close proximity to the base, Chatham House report said. Additionally, Cambodian state media has revealed future plans for the development of new storage facilities, a hospital, drydocks, and slipways at Ream.
“Hun Sen has been in power since 1998, but with US influence in Cambodia waning amid his increasingly autocratic tendencies, he has courted Beijing which has responded with investment and economic incentives, not least in Sihanoukville itself," the report by the think tank added. The development will be watched closely in New Delhi as China's aggressive actions in the South China Sea, including the construction of military facilities on disputed islands, may create a sense of strategic encirclement for India.
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