Institute of Foreign Languages

Department of International Studies

Subject Code: IS401
Lecturer: An Sokkhoeurn
Date: 19/03/2015

Homework 1
Cambodias Policy of Neutrality

Group 3: Chanty Vongvothaneat

Kak Yutthavonn
Khoy Sovannawath

1.

Cambodia decided to join the non-alliance pact and continue its stats of neutrality

because of the following reasons. First of all, Cambodia actually wanted to join the military
alliance with the United States in order to get protection from the encroachment from its
neighboring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam because a small and weak country like
Cambodia cant stand it ground without the support of a superpower. However, U.S. rejected
Cambodias proposal due to the lack of strategic importance of Cambodia and the weak armed
forces that Cambodia possessed at that time so Cambodia has no choice but to stay neutral. Even
though U.S. rejected Cambodias proposal U.S. still provide the military and economic aid to
Cambodia. Secondly, Cambodia adopted this policy because it tried to avoid taking side because
of the intensification of cold war and by staying neutral Cambodia can actually gain a lot of
benefits from both the capitalist and socialist. Moreover, the adaptation of non-alignment policy
of Cambodia could be the result of the friendship between King Sihanouk and the high profile
non-aligned movement leaders such as Indonesias Sukarno and the Yugoslavia leader Tito
which those leaders have close personal relation with the King. On the other hand by adopted
this policy Cambodia can put the risk of conflict and fighting between the capitalist and socialist
at bay and be friend with both bloc so that these two main blocs wouldnt chose Cambodia as
their sphere of influent.
2.

Cambodia from 1953-1970 adopted neutrality. This had brought Cambodia both interest

and harm. First of all, we can say that Cambodia had to do so in order to protect its own security.
During the first Indochina war, some of the Viet Minh forces crossed into Cambodia boarder and
although Cambodia used all of its troops to force the Viet Minh back, Cambodia could not
successfully force all of them out. According to GlobalSecurity.org (n.d), in exchange for the
withdrawal of Viet Minh forces, the representatives from Viet Minh demanded full neutrality for

Cambodia and Laos. The second benefit that Cambodia gained from being neutrality would be
the fact that Cambodia received aids from both democratic and communist states. During that
time, in order to persuade Cambodia to sway, both U.S and China provided a lot of aids to
Cambodia. However, Cambodia also faced terrible consequences from being neutrality. For
once, being neutrality had caused Cambodia to go through civil war that lasted for decades. It
was believed that because the U.S. was not very pleased that Cambodia remained neutral, the
U.S. decided to back Marshal Lon Nol to start a military coup against the prince. The U.S.
decided to do so because the U.S. wanted Cambodia to become a democratic state, which really
did happened according to the U.S.s plan. However, it was not long before the communist party
used this chance to strike and win the control over the country. Following that event was a period
of mass killing and human right abuses by the communist party. All of these would not have
happened if Cambodia had chosen a side from the start.
3.

Based on 1993 constitution, Cambodian foreign policy is a kind of neutrality, non-

alliance, and independence in nature. However, within international arena, Cambodia has
struggled to retain neutral and earn good relations from both superpowers U.S., and China, as
China is active in economic relations, and U.S. is active in defense cooperation. In most extent,
Cambodia is seen to bend toward rising China. Having good relations with China will serve
Cambodian interests in both long and short term. In the future, China will be the big market for
Cambodian products, and Cambodia can be an economic corridor for Chinese firms when it
comes to outsourcing strategy; therefore, Cambodia can achieve ultimate goal of economic
development (Vannarith, 2011)
Nowadays China is a main dynamic to boost Cambodias economic growth. Investment
with China accounted for USD 9.17 billion between 1994 and 2012, which mostly focuses on

garment factory providing a lot of jobs for rural people. And also, by 2014, China is the largest
donor to Cambodia, whose aids chiefly go to infrastructure project.
In return, China has exerted its influence on Cambodia economic and political aspect. To
demonstrate, economically Cambodia has been accused of favoring Chinese investment, putting
Chinas investment interests above that of other nations.
Politically, Cambodia deported 20 ethnic Uyghur asylum seekers to China upon Beijings
request in 2009. Moreover, during ASEAN submit in 2012, China has provided millions of
dollar and influenced on Cambodia to exclude SCS disputes from agenda, to have bilateral
meeting between conflicting states of ASEAN with China by the statement of P.M. that We
cannot solve the problem of the SCS with outside countries. Cambodia will be proactive in
stopping outside interference, as it leads to complications (Murray, 2012), and that led to no
joint communiqu for the first time in ASEAN history that condemned by ASEAN countries
(Pheakdey, 2013). More importantly, Cambodia strongly supports one China policy. P.M. Hun
Sen stated that, We follow One-China policy; Taiwan is just one province of China, and display
of Taiwanese flags or the celebration of Taiwanese ceremonies arent not allow (Sokha &
Schoneker, 2010). Those are the instances behind notion that Cambodias foreign policy mainly
leans on China.

References
GlobalSecurity.org. (n.d). Cambodia Under Sihanouk 1949-1970. Retrieved on March 16th,
2015, from: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/cambodia/historysihanouk.htm
Murray, L. R. (2012). Target Cambodia | World Policy Institute. Retrieved March 13, 2015,
from http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/summer2012/target-cambodia
Pheakdey. (2013, July 16). Chinese investment and aid in Cambodia a controversial affair | East
Asia Forum. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2013/07/16/chinese-investment-and-aid-in-cambodia-acontroversial-affair/
Sokha, C., & Schoneker, J. (2010, August 13). Taiwan responds to P.M.s remarks.
Retrieved March 13, 2015, from www.phnompenhpost.com/national/taiwan-respondspm%E2%80%99s-remarks
Vannarith, C. (2011, December 11). Assessment of Cambodian Foreign Policy in 2011 |
Vannarith Chheang [Web log post]. Retrieved from
https://vannarithchheang.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/assesment-of-cambodian-foreignpolicy-in-2011/