Japan’s minesweepers to visit Cambodia port upgraded by China the same day as Xi visits the country

Japan on Tuesday announced that two of its minesweepers will visit a naval port in Cambodia this weekend in the first foreign navy visit since a Chinese-funded expansion project was completed.

The Bungo and the Etajima are set to the enter the Ream Naval Base on Friday. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to be in the country the same day as he ends a three-country tour of southeast Asia.

Ream was inaugurated earlier this month with a new pier to accomodate much larger ships, a dry dock for repairs and other new features. China’s role in the project drove concern among its rivals that Beijing may seek to use the facility as its strategic outpost.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said the port call by the Japanese ships will help Cambodia to have a naval port that is open and transparent, as he noted concern about China’s growing move to secure overseas outposts to expand its military activity.

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The visit “symbolizes friendship and closer security cooperation” between the two countries, Nakatani said. “It will contribute to the further openness of the port and it is important in achieving stability and peace in the region.”

The two ships left Japan in January and are currently on a four-month mission that includes multinational exercises in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East.

Japan has developed increasingly close ties with Cambodia in recent years, seeking to offset China’s influence in the region, and Cambodia invited it to make the renovated port’s first port call. Tokyo had kept mum on its plans until today, apparently due to political sensitivity of the issue.

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The Cambodian government said it was giving priority to Japanese warships as a tribute to the high level of openness in cooperation, relations and mutual trust between the two sides.

China is Cambodia’s biggest investor and closest political partner. China’s funding of the ream Ream naval port triggered concern by the United States and its regional allies and partners that the port will allow China to station its military, store weapons and berth warships in the Gulf of Thailand.