Cambodia

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Military & Security

China and Cambodia initiated the 2025 iteration of their annual Golden Dragon military drills, the largest ever between the two countries and the largest ever in Cambodian history, which will run through May 28, AFP reported May 14.

China, Cambodia: Beijing, Phnom Penh Kick Off Largest Ever Joint Drills

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Economics

Environment, Science & Technology

Science & Technology

The United States imposed antidumping and countervailing duties ranging from an effective 0% to 3,521% on solar panels and modules imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, according to U.S. Commerce Department data published on April 22, with rates on the affected exporting companies depending on their level of cooperation with the U.S. investigation.

U.S., ASEAN: New U.S. Tariffs To Hammer Solar Panel Exports, Chinese Transshipment

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet signed 37 cooperation agreements spanning investment, trade and infrastructure, with the flagship Funan Techo canal deal structured as a public-private partnership under which Chinese investors will finance 49% of the $1.7 billion project's cost, The Phnom Penh Post reported on April 18.

China, Cambodia: Countries Sign Dozens of Deals, Including on Canal

Brunei Darussalam

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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that Malaysia, as 2025 chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will lead a coordinated bloc-wide response to stiff tariff hikes instituted by the United States on all its members, the South China Morning Post reported April 7. 

Asia-Pacific: ASEAN Chair Malaysia Attempts Coordinated Response to U.S. Tariffs

Timor-Leste

Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states are disproportionately impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of reciprocal tariffs on April 2, The Wall Street Journal reported April 3. 

ASEAN: Southeast Asia Most Severely Impacted Region by U.S. Tariff Hikes

Politics

Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia have escalated over the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple complex, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet warning that Cambodia is prepared to use military force if Thai troops enter the site, BenarNews reported on March 18.

Thailand, Cambodia: Reinvigorated Border Dispute Risks Resumption of Clashes

Japan

Cambodia is signaling openness to naval port calls by the United States and U.S. allies at the Chinese-built Ream Naval Base, where Japan’s navy is set to make a port call in April, The Washington Post reported March 6.

Cambodia: Upcoming Japanese Port Call Could Signal Shifting Strategy

Five diplomats with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said China was increasingly likely to agree to make the long unrealized South China Sea code of conduct legally binding, The Straits Times reported on Feb. 28.

ASEAN, China: Expectations Rising for South China Sea Code of Conduct

Assessments

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Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China, on March 11, 2025. 

U.S.-Iran Relations

A look at what the coming week will bring -- and a list of recommended RANE articles from the week that was.

The Weekly Rundown: Xi Tours Southeast Asia, Iran-U.S. Nuclear Talks Begin

Snapshots

The Ta Moan Thom temple is seen on the border between Thailand and Cambodia.

While full-scale military conflict is unlikely, the dispute risks spurring localized border clashes, as both Cambodia and Thailand maintain entrenched military positions with no clear legal resolution.

Thai-Cambodian Tensions Flare Over Disputed Temple, Raising Fears of Clashes

The flags of the countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, are seen on display.

U.S.-China Relations

Malaysia's chairmanship will be pivotal in navigating security risks as well as those from U.S. trade restrictions, potential Chinese economic coercion, and supply chain realignments that threaten ASEAN's cohesion and strategic autonomy.

Previewing Malaysia's 2025 ASEAN Chairmanship

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The lobby of the headquarters for the U.S. Agency for International Development is seen on Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. 

Social Issues

Cuts to U.S.-funded humanitarian and development programs could worsen global health outcomes, destabilize security environments, accelerate democratic backsliding, and create opportunities for rival powers to expand their influence.

The Global Implications of Trump's Foreign Aid Cuts

Energy

The Geopolitics of Water

Amid pressing energy and geopolitical needs, the accelerating construction of upstream dams will exacerbate the Mekong River region's water shortages and environmental degradation.

The Geopolitics of Water: National Interests Sideline Environmental Concerns in the Mekong River Region

Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (center) and other ASEAN leaders take part in the 2024 ASEAN summit in Vientiane on Oct. 9, 2024. 

The deals signed at the summit reflect an increasing focus on economic integration amid the Southeast Asian bloc's continued failure to find consensus on security issues.

Reviewing the 2024 ASEAN Summit

The flags of ASEAN members are displayed at a naval base during the ASEAN Solidarity Exercise in Batam, Natuna regency, Riau Islands province, Indonesia, on Sept. 20, 2023. 

ASEAN's economic and geopolitical diversity will impede significant progress toward deeper integration, despite members' intention to collaborate more closely.

Economic and Geopolitical Diversity Hinders ASEAN's Path to Deeper Integration

Turkey

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Kyrgyzstan

The escalating impacts of climate change and water scarcity will inflame tensions between Central Asian countries, raising the risk of violent state conflict in the coming decades. 

The Geopolitics of Water: The Looming Threat of Central Asian 'Water Wars'

The Mekong River and Tonle Sap River meet at Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The project will substantially reduce Cambodia's trade dependence on Vietnam, while contributing to China's broader geopolitical goal of constructing a global network of friendly ports.

Cambodia's Funan Techo Canal Marks a Loss for Vietnam and a Win for China

An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2022, shows solar panels at the Sao Mai solar energy plant in Vietnam’s An Giang province. 

Several ASEAN countries are on track to develop substantial renewable power capacities in the short term, but technical, political and financial constraints, coupled with incentives to keep burning fossil fuels, will impede long-term decarbonization goals.

The Challenges Facing Southeast Asia's Decarbonization

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (R) delivers an opening address at the start of a bilateral meeting with Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (L) at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, on Dec. 16, 2023.

Laos' vulnerabilities will weaken its ASEAN chairmanship, although the bloc's economic interconnectivity will likely continue to grow.

Laos' Limitations Portend a Lukewarm Year for ASEAN

Regional leaders pose for a group photo before the ASEAN-Australia summit, held as part of the 43rd ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sept. 7, 2023. From left to right stand the Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sarun Charoensuwan, Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indonesia's President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Brunei's Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

ASEAN's most recent summit underscored chronic passivity within the bloc that will only worsen in 2024. 

Amid ASEAN's Inaction, the Block's Members Look to External Partners for Security

Cambodia occupies a transition zone between the western and eastern portions of mainland Southeast Asia and is defined by its weak geopolitical position between Thailand and Vietnam. This vulnerability led to massive instability throughout the 1946 to 1989 Indochina Wars and into the 1990s. In ancient times, the Cambodian Angkor empire controlled much of the Mekong Basin to the north, parts of Thailand, and extend east to the South China Sea. Since the fall of Angkor in the 15th century, however, Cambodia has been gradually eaten away by the expansion of powers to its east and west.     Cambodia's core is the basin of the seasonal Tonle Sap lake and the lowlands where the Mekong River flows toward Vietnam. This region is home to much of Cambodia's population and produces its vital agricultural surplus. It also contains the capital city of Phnom Penh, which is a center for Cambodia's low-end manufacturing sector that accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country's exports.     Having lost the Mekong Delta, modern Cambodia's only coastline is a 440-kilometer (273-mile) strip on the Gulf of Thailand that is largely screened off from the country's interior by the Elephant and Cardamom mountains. Furthermore, Cambodia lacks control of its main river system, the Mekong, which enters the South China Sea through southern Vietnam.     Cambodia's unachievable imperative is to reclaim its lost buffer space and its eastern access to the sea via the Mekong. But its weak geopolitical hand makes modern Cambodia's achievable imperative to protect its lowland core and enlist the help of a foreign patron to guard against its powerful neighbors. However, doing so risks making the country into a client state or causing it to fall prey to a great power's games.

SITUATION REPORTS

China, Cambodia: Beijing, Phnom Penh Kick Off Largest Ever Joint Drills

U.S., ASEAN: New U.S. Tariffs To Hammer Solar Panel Exports, Chinese Transshipment

China, Cambodia: Countries Sign Dozens of Deals, Including on Canal

Asia-Pacific: ASEAN Chair Malaysia Attempts Coordinated Response to U.S. Tariffs

ASEAN: Southeast Asia Most Severely Impacted Region by U.S. Tariff Hikes

Thailand, Cambodia: Reinvigorated Border Dispute Risks Resumption of Clashes

Cambodia: Upcoming Japanese Port Call Could Signal Shifting Strategy

ASEAN, China: Expectations Rising for South China Sea Code of Conduct

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