US, Cambodia to conduct joint military drill

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

March 12, 2012
Xinhua

The United States and Cambodia will participate in the joint military exercise, Angkor Sentinel, on March 13-22 in Kampot and Kampong Speu provinces, aiming at cementing the two countries' military ties, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy on Monday.

Angkor Sentinel 2012 is a major bilateral exercise that continues a substantial, multi-year effort by U.S. Army Pacific and U.S. Pacific Command to actively engage with Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and expand peacekeeping and stability operations capabilities, said the press release.

Approximately 100 members of U.S. Army Pacific will join Royal Cambodian Armed Forces in focusing on peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance operations, including a battalion exercise, a counter-improvised explosives devices field exercise, medical civic actions projects to treat underserved rural inhabitants, and battlefield medical activities, it added.

Cambodian soldiers to join multi-national peacekeeping exercise in Indonesia

April 22, 2009
Source: Xinhua

Cambodia plans to send 61 soldiers to join multi-national peacekeeping exercise Garuda Shield 09 in Indonesia in the near future, said the official Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) on Wednesday.

Details can't be given right now, AKP quoted Sem Sovanny, General of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) and Director General of the National Management Center for Peacekeeping Forces, Mine and ERW (Explosive Remnants of War) Clearance, as saying.

Meanwhile, the agency quoted U.S. Ambassador Carol A. Rodley assaying that the United States will continuously help train Cambodian soldiers for their participation in the multi-national peacekeeping exercise in Indonesia.

The United States will also sponsor Cambodia to host a multilateral peacekeeping exercise in 2010, she added.

In early April, Prak Sokhon, secretary of state at the Cambodian Council of Ministers, told reporters that 2,000 troops from 13 countries will take part in the U.S.- and UN-sponsored exercise to be held in Kompong Speu province in 2010.

The event will be conducted in the framework of the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), an annual Capstone training event attended by GPOI member nations and other regional and international partners.

GPOI once held such exercises in Bangladesh in 2008 and Mongolia in 2007. Garuda Shield 09 in Indonesia is the upcoming GPOI serial exercise.

According to official files, Cambodia respectively sent 40 soldiers to Bangladesh and 43 to Mongolia to take part in these GPOI exercises.

Will the US train RCAF soldiers to defend Cambodia's borders and to stop grabbing lands from the poor? ... or are they trained to defend the regime?

US Pacific forces Commander Admiral Timothy Keating (R) offers a souvenir photograph to Cambodian Minister of Defense Tea Banh (L) at the Ministry of Defense in Phnom Penh. "China professes to be advocating a peaceful rise," said Keating during his first official trip to Cambodia, where he met with senior defence officials. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Commander: US Military to Train RCAF Troops

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
21 August 2007

The US military will help train Cambodia troops in counterterrorism, a top-ranking US official said Tuesday.

Admiral Timothy Keating, US commander-in-chief for the Pacific theater, said after meeting Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh that he would support such training to Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers to strengthen military ties between the two countries.

"We are very grateful for the support that Cambodia is providing, and we are anxious to make an even stronger friendship," Keating said.

Cambodia is enjoying increasing security support from the US. Military officials have trained doctors on bird flu response and the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a branch office in Phnom Penh earlier this year.