![]() | |
![]() Cambodia | ![]() United States |
---|---|
Envoy | |
Ambassador Chum Sounry | Vacant |
Bilateral relations between the United States and Cambodia, while strained throughout the Cold War, have strengthened considerably in modern times. The U.S. supports efforts in Cambodia to combat terrorism, build democratic institutions, promote human rights, foster economic development, eliminate corruption. [1] [2]
According to a 2011 Gallup poll, 68% of Cambodians approved of the job performance of the United States under the Obama administration, with 7% disapproving, the most favorable opinion for any surveyed Asia–Pacific nation. [3] In a 2012 Gallup Poll, 62% of Cambodians approved of U.S. leadership, with 8% disapproving. [4] President Barack Obama's visit to Phnom Penh in 2012 made history as the first U.S. presidential visit to Cambodia.
Between 1955 and 1963, the United States provided $409.6 million in economic grant aid and $83.7 million in military assistance. [ citation needed ] This aid was used primarily to repair damage caused by the Indochina War, to support internal security forces, and for the construction of an all-weather road to the seaport of Sihanoukville, which gave Cambodia its first direct access to the sea and access to the southwestern hinterlands. Relations deteriorated in the early 1960s. Diplomatic relations were broken by Cambodia in May 1965, but were reestablished on July 2, 1969. U.S. relations continued after the establishment of the Khmer Republic until the U.S. mission was evacuated during the fall of Phnom Penh on April 12, 1975.
During the 1970–1975 war, the United States provided $1.18 billion in military assistance to the Khmer National Armed Forces in their fight against the Khmer Rouge as well as $503 million in economic assistance. The United States condemned the brutal character of Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979. Relations worsened after the Mayaguez incident when the Liberation Navy of Kampuchea captured the SS Mayaguez and the U.S. Marine Corps responded by raiding the island of Koh Tang. [5] However, the fact that this regime was toppled in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War by Vietnam, which the United States regarded as a hostile power, led to U.S. condemnation of the Vietnamese invasion. The United States recognized the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (which included the Khmer Rouge) as the legitimate government of Cambodia. [6] Ben Kiernan claimed that the U.S. offered material support to the Khmer Rouge after the Vietnamese invasion. [7] Other sources have disputed these claims, [8] and described extensive fighting between the U.S.-backed forces of the Khmer People's National Liberation Front and the Khmer Rouge. [9]
Concurrent with these efforts, the United States supported ASEAN's efforts in the 1980s to achieve a political settlement of the Cambodian Civil War that would include the Khmer Rouge in the government. This was accomplished on October 23, 1991, when the Paris Conference reconvened to sign a comprehensive settlement.
The U.S. Mission in Phnom Penh opened on May 13, 1994, headed by career diplomat Charles H. Twining, Jr., who was designated U.S. Special Representative to the SNC. [10] On January 3, 1992, the U.S. lifted its embargo against Cambodia, thus normalizing economic relations with the country. The United States also ended blanket opposition to lending to Cambodia by international financial institutions. When the freely elected Royal Government of Cambodia was formed on September 24, 1993, the United States and the Kingdom of Cambodia immediately established full diplomatic relations. The U.S. Mission was upgraded to a U.S. embassy, and in May 1994 Mr. Twining became the U.S. ambassador. After the factional fighting in 1997 and Hun Sen's legal machinations to depose First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh, the United States suspended bilateral assistance to the Cambodian Government. At the same time, many U.S. citizens and other expatriates were evacuated from Cambodia and, in the subsequent weeks and months, more than 40,000 Cambodian refugees fled to Thailand. The 1997 events also left a long list of uninvestigated human rights abuses, including dozens of extrajudicial killings. Since 1997 until recently, U.S. assistance to the Cambodian people has been provided mainly through non-governmental organizations, which flourish in Cambodia.
Since 2017, relations between the two countries have grown increasingly strained under calls by the United States to halt what it says is significant democratic backsliding and closer military ties with the People's Republic of China. [11] According to the U.S. State Department, the Cambodian government's crackdown on journalists, human rights activists, and political opposition has transformed the country from a developing democracy inclusive of independent media to a "de facto one-party—and increasingly authoritarian—state intolerant of dissent." [11] In late 2017, the government of Cambodia banned the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the nation's largest opposition party, short of the 2018 national assembly election, clearing the way for the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) which prompted the United States to impose sanctions on senior Cambodian officials in hopes of reversing the nation's apparent descent into authoritarianism. [12]
Of further concern to the United States, Cambodia has greatly reduced its military partnership with the U.S. and strengthened its military ties with China. In 2017, Cambodia suspended all combined military operations with the United States and began training with the People's Liberation Army (PLA). [13] In 2019, the Wall Street Journal published a report detailing a secret deal between Beijing and Phnom Penh to allow the stationing of PLA troops at Ream Naval Base. [14] In 2020, Cambodia demolished a Cambodian Navy tactical headquarters funded and built by the United States and after broke ground on the new Beijing-funded Ream Naval Base. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Wang Wentian, China's ambassador to Cambodia, announced that the project would deepen the "iron-clad partnership" between the two nation's militaries. [13] [15] Souring military and political relations with the Washington and improving relations with Beijing have caused many to speculate that Cambodia views China as a closer ally. [13] [16]
Following the 2023 general election, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Cambodia, alleging electoral fraud. [17] The U.S. State Department also named jailed union leader Chhim Sithar as one of its Human Rights Defender Award recipients for 2023. She is the first Cambodian to receive this award. [18]
The U.S. embassy is located in Phnom Penh, near Wat Phnom. It is one of the biggest embassies in Phnom Penh. It is located on the site of the former Cercle Sportif (also known as the Club Sportif Khmer) and following the capture of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975 was the scene of the execution of various high-ranking leaders of the Khmer Republic including Lon Non, Long Boret and Sisowath Sirik Matak. [19] [20]
Norodom Sihanouk was a Cambodian politician, film director, and composer who led Cambodia in various capacities throughout his long career, most often as both King and Prime Minister of Cambodia. In Cambodia, he is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, a Japanese puppet state (1945), an independent kingdom (1953–1970), a military republic (1970–1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), a Vietnamese-backed communist regime (1979–1989), a transitional communist regime (1989–1993) to eventually another kingdom.
After the fall of the Pol Pot regime of Democratic Kampuchea, Cambodia was under Vietnamese occupation and a pro-Hanoi government, the People's Republic of Kampuchea, was established. A civil war raged during the 1980s opposing the government's Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces against the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, a government in exile composed of three Cambodian political factions: Prince Norodom Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC party, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF).
Samdech Hun Sen is a Cambodian politician, and former army general who currently serves as the president of the Senate. He previously served as the prime minister of Cambodia from 1985 to 2023. Hun Sen is the longest-serving head of government in Cambodia's history. He is the president of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which has governed Cambodia since 1979, and has served as a member of the Senate since 2024. His full honorary title is Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen.
The National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, commonly referred to as FUNCINPEC, is a royalist political party in Cambodia. Founded in 1981 by Norodom Sihanouk, it began as a resistance movement against the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government. In 1982, it formed a resistance pact with the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), together with the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) and the Khmer Rouge. It became a political party in 1992.
Articles related to Cambodia and Cambodian culture include:
Norodom Ranariddh was a Cambodian prince, politician and law academic. He was the second son of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and a half-brother of King Norodom Sihamoni. Ranariddh was the president of FUNCINPEC, a Cambodian royalist party. He was also the first Prime Minister of Cambodia following the restoration of the monarchy, serving between 1993 and 1997, and subsequently as the President of the National Assembly between 1998 and 2006.
Norodom Sihamoni is King of Cambodia. He became King on 14 October 2004, a week after the abdication of his father, Norodom Sihanouk.
Chea Sim was a Cambodian politician. He was President of the Cambodian People's Party from 1991 to 2015, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia from 1981 to 1998 and President of the Senate from 1999 to 2015. His official title was Samdech Akka Moha Thomma Pothisal Chea Sim.
Norodom Chakrapong is a Cambodian politician, businessman and former major-general of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. He is the fourth son of Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and also a half-brother of the current king, Norodom Sihamoni. Chakrapong started his career as a military pilot in 1963. After Sihanouk was overthrown in 1970, Chakrapong spent time under house arrest, then in Beijing as the Head of Protocol of then-Prince Sihanouk, afterwards living overseas before he joined the Funcinpec in 1981 and fought against Vietnamese occupation as a commander of the Armée Nationale Sihanoukiste. In 1991, Chakrapong left Funcinpec to join the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia between 1992 and 1993. When the CPP lost the 1993 general elections, Chakrapong led a secession attempt in 1993. In 1994, he was accused of joining a failed coup attempt which led him to be sent into exile. After Chakrapong was pardoned in 1998, he founded a private airline company, Royal Phnom Penh Airways. The airlines later stopped all operations in early 2006.
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between Democratic Kampuchea, controlled by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war began with repeated attacks by the Liberation Army of Kampuchea on the southwestern border of Vietnam, particularly the Ba Chúc massacre which resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians. On 23 December 1978, 10 out of 19 divisions of Khmer Rouge's military divisions opened fire along the shared Southwestern borderline with Vietnam with the goal of invading the Vietnamese provinces of Đồng Tháp, An Giang and Kiên Giang. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea, and subsequently occupied the country in 2 weeks and removed the government of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from power. In doing so, Vietnam put an ultimate stop to the Cambodian Genocide, which had most likely killed between 1.2 million and 2.8 million people — or between 13 and 30 percent of the country’s population.
Sar Kheng is a Cambodian politician. He is the vice president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party and served as Minister of the Interior and deputy prime minister from 1992 to 2023. He also represents the province of Battambang in the Cambodian Parliament. Kheng has been the Minister of the Interior since 1992. Until March 2006, he shared the position with FUNCINPEC party member You Hockry as co-Ministers of the Interior, but then became sole interior minister in a cabinet reshuffle as FUNCINPEC ended its coalition with the CPP.
The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, renamed in 1990 to the National Government of Cambodia, was a coalition government in exile composed of three Cambodian political factions, namely Prince Norodom Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC party, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) formed in 1982, broadening the de facto deposed Democratic Kampuchea regime. For most of its existence, it was the internationally recognized government of Cambodia.
The People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) was a partially recognised state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1979 to 1989. It was a client state of Vietnam, founded in Cambodia by the Vietnamese-backed Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, a group of Cambodian communists who were dissatisfied with the Khmer Rouge due to its oppressive rule and defected from it after the overthrow of Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot's government. Brought about by an invasion from Vietnam, which routed the Khmer Rouge armies, it had Vietnam and the Soviet Union as its main allies.
Cambodia–Russia relations are the bilateral relations of Cambodia and Russia. The relations between both countries were strong since the Soviet era. Russia has an embassy in Phnom Penh. Cambodia has an embassy in Moscow. Both countries are full members of the East Asia Summit.
Cambodia–Vietnam relations take place in the form of bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The countries have shared a land border for the last 1,000 years and share more recent historical links through being part of the French colonial empire. Both countries are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The 1997 Cambodian coup d'état took place in Cambodia from July to September 1997. As a result, co-premier Hun Sen ousted the other co-premier Norodom Ranariddh. At least 32 people were killed during the coup.
The Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea was a government-in-exile of Cambodia, based in Beijing and Hong Kong, that was in existence between 1970 and 1976, and was briefly in control of the country starting from 1975.
General Sak Sutsakhan was a Cambodian politician and soldier who had a long career in the country's politics. He was the last Head of State of the Khmer Republic, the regime overthrown by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Sak Sutsakhan formed a pro-US force known as the Khmer Sâ. As a businessman, Sak Sutsakhan notably owned a Dairy Queen franchise in Anaheim, California.
The following lists events that happened during 1975 in Cambodia.
The Cambodian Conflict or Khmer Rouge Insurgency, was an armed conflict that initiated in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, Vietnam which provoked the deposition of Democratic Kampuchea, between the new Cambodian government and an anti-government coalition led by the Khmer Rouge.
This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.
Media related to Relations of Cambodia and the United States at Wikimedia Commons