Sino-Cambodian solidarity seen as role model of ties

Countries vow to build high-quality community with shared future to benefit people, prosperity

China and Cambodia have agreed to build an all-around cooperation framework to underline their increasingly closer ties. Experts said such a move sets an example for the world when some countries are practicing hegemony to disturb state-to-state relations and interfere in the existing international order.

The pledge was made when President Xi Jinping met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Beijing on Friday.

Noting that Hun Sen's last trip to China was in February 2020 when the Chinese people were fighting COVID-19, Xi said: "It gives me great pleasure to work with you to realize our three-year appointment and open a new era of building a China-Cambodia community with a shared future at the start of spring."

The Cambodian prime minister said he was glad to be received as the first foreign leader to visit China after Spring Festival.

The two countries issued a joint statement on Saturday, vowing to build a high-quality, high-level and high-standard China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era to bring more benefits to the two peoples and contribute more positive energy to regional peace, stability and development.

During the meeting, Xi pointed out that engaging in ideological confrontation, politicizing and weaponizing trade and technology exchanges, and forceful decoupling with and containing of other countries are all acts of hegemony and do not have people's support.

Xu Liping, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' National Institute of International Strategy, said, "Cambodia has stood steadfastly with China at all times, as demonstrated by Hun Sen's trip three years ago when other countries were busy evacuating their citizens from China".

Noting that Cambodia was the first country to sign a document to build with China a community with a shared future, Xu said the China-Cambodia relationship serves as a role model for China building "a global community with a shared future" with more neighbors and partners around the world.

Friday's meeting was the latest of a dozen in-person and phone talks between Xi and Hun Sen.

Gu Jiayun, director of Beijing Foreign Studies University's Center for Cambodian Studies, said, "The leaders' frequent exchanges demonstrated the two countries' high level of political mutual trust and their strong will to maintain strategic communications and further practical cooperation."

During the meeting, Xi said the two nations could build a cooperation framework in politics, production capacity, agriculture, energy, security and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

Xi told Hun Sen that China is ready to share opportunities, seek cooperation and promote development with Cambodia, as China continues on its path to modernization.

According to Gu, agricultural cooperation between the two countries has helped promote the modernization, technological upgrading and industrialization of Cambodia's production and processing of agricultural goods.

Xu said that besides agriculture, China-Cambodia cooperation in construction of infrastructure has also offered a strong boost to Cambodia's modernization.

The China-invested Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, which started operations in October, is the first-ever expressway in Cambodia and one of the many landmark achievements of the two countries under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xu said the road had also bought hope. "The improvement of Cambodia's road and rail systems will undoubtedly help build up people's confidence for a better life," he said.

China has been Cambodia's largest trading partner and source of investment. Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed that bilateral trade hit a record $16.02 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 17.5 percent.

The two countries are expected to deliver more benefits by further implementing their bilateral free trade agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, both of which took effect in January 2022.

Cambodia's close relationship with China has drawn criticism from some Western countries. However, Hun Sen has on many occasions defended his nation's position, saying, "If I don't rely on China, who will I rely on"?

In an interview with China Central Television before heading to Beijing for the visit, the Cambodian prime minister said, "We can invite those critics to visit the bridges that have been built across the rivers and ask them, 'If not China, who else will help build these bridges?'"

He stressed that building a community with a shared future is not only in the interest of his country, but also of all member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University's Institute of International Relations, said China and Cambodia have proved through their cooperation that all countries are closely connected within a shared community, and their security and development are intertwined.

"Faced with some countries' attempts to drive a wedge between China and other regional countries, it is important to promote regional integration through practical cooperation and unite with each other to resist such confrontation guided by a Cold War mentality," Li said.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said that the special and unbreakable ties between the two countries are a role model of bilateral relations that can be replicated both regionally and globally.

As 2023 marks the Year of Cambodia-China Friendship, the strong commitment and great efforts made by the leaders and peoples of the two countries underpin that the building of the Cambodia-China community with a shared future is a reality, he told China Daily.

Gu, from Beijing Foreign Studies University, said that visits by Cambodians to China for travel and study are expected to resume after China optimized its COVID-19 response measures.

"This will help facilitate mutual understanding between the two peoples, especially the young generations, and build a bridge of mutual learning," he said.

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn