PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - China has promised more than 250 new military trucks to Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen said May 31, signaling deeper military cooperation between the two nations.
Hun Sen said a donation of 257 military trucks and 50,000 military uniforms was agreed during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Shanghai earlier in May.
"They are all brand-new trucks... from the factory," Hun Sen said during a ceremony to open a Chinese-funded bridge.
The trucks will arrive in Cambodia June 18 and then be featured in a parade, said Hun Sen, who went on to praise Chinese leaders for "talking less, but doing a lot" to help Cambodia.
The announcement of Chinese military aid comes after the U.S. in April stopped a shipment of military trucks to Cambodia as punishment for sending ethnic Uighur asylum-seekers back to China in defiance of international appeals.
Cambodia in December deported the 20 Uighurs, members of a largely Muslim minority group in western China, even though they were seeking U.N. refugee status and said they would face torture if returned.
The decision to deport the Uighurs came a day ahead of a visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, during which he agreed $1.2 billion in aid and loans to Cambodia with Hun Sen.
Beijing has rejected accusations that the generous aid package was linked to the move.
China, a former patron of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, now eclipses many of the impoverished country's other donors with hundreds of millions of dollars in largely-unconditional aid and donated military equipment.
From: DN
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