(Bloomberg) -- US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin travels to Cambodia Tuesday in a push to reset ties with China’s most ardent ally in Southeast Asia amid simmering tensions over the regime’s expanding security and economic ties with Beijing. 

Austin will meet senior officials including West Point-educated Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, according to two US officials who asked not to be named because the meeting hasn’t been announced. Manet took over from his father Hun Sen after nearly four decades in power and continues to lean on Beijing to prop up Cambodia’s economy with infrastructure projects. 

The Pentagon chief’s first visit to the Mekong nation since 2022 comes with tensions continuing over Beijing’s redevelopment of a strategic naval base the US says will become China’s first overseas post in the Indo-Pacific. Cambodia has repeatedly denied the allegation, saying any permanent foreign presence would violate its constitution.

The Austin visit is expected to help start a conversation with Cambodia about closer defense ties as Washington seeks to provide an alternative to Beijing, according to US officials. The US remains concerned about the Ream Naval Base linked to China, as well as human rights issues, another US official said. 

Chum Sounry, Secretary of State at Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, didn’t respond to text messages or a phone call about the visit. The Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Austin’s plans.

The new Cambodian government will now have an opportunity for improved ties with the US, according to Sovinda Po, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Institute for International Studies and Public Policy in Phnom Penh. 

“Cambodia can move closer to the US as long as Washington doesn’t insist that we move away from our close ties with China,” Sovinda Po said. “China will always be number one.”

Under Hun Manet, the Cambodian economy has continued to lean on Beijing, with China accounting for two-thirds of the $4.92 billion the nation attracted in fixed-asset foreign investment last year, Xinhua reported, citing Cambodian government data.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Sok Chenda Sophea asked his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to invest in more special economic zones during a meeting in China last month. The two sides also discussed enhancing defense cooperation.

Military Presence

Austin will be traveling after attending a defense forum in Singapore, where he made a speech touting the various partnerships Washington is strengthening in the region as a hedge against Beijing. While he told political and defense leaders that US ties with China are improving, tensions remain over Taiwan, trade and disputes the South China Sea. 

US concerns over Beijing’s military presence in Cambodia came to the fore again earlier this year after a rare visit by Chinese warships at the base on the Gulf of Thailand. Last week, Cambodia and China concluded their first live-fire drills, called “Golden Dragon 2024,” near the base in question that included the deployment of Chinese-made robot dogs equipped with assault rifles.

Cambodia Minister of National Defense Tea Seiha said at the same conference that Austin attended over the weekend that there was nothing to hide when it comes to the Ream naval base. 

“I have answered many diplomats who have come to talk to me with the same question,” he said. 

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