AKP Phnom Penh, February 24, 2025 --

The Royal Cambodian Army (RCA) and the United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) are committed to consolidating their bilateral army relation.

The commitment was reaffirmed during a bilateral meeting here at the RCA headquarters on Feb. 24 between H.E. General Mao Sophan, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and RCA Commander and visiting H.E. General Ronald P. Clark, Commanding General of the USARPAC, who is leading a delegation on an official visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia. 

During the meeting, both commanders commended the 75th anniversary of Cambodia-U.S. diplomatic relations and acknowledged the steady growth of bilateral cooperation across various domains, including trade, tourism, culture, counterterrorism, peacekeeping, demining, the recovery of missing American military personnel, and defense collaboration, according to the RCA’s press release AKP received this evening.

H.E. General Mao Sophan expressed gratitude to the U.S. for resuming military training programmes for Cambodian officers and continuing support for Cambodia's demining efforts. He further underscored the importance of military dialogue in building mutual trust and confidence and reaffirmed his commitment to working closely with H.E. General Ronald P. Clark to strengthen bilateral cooperation based on friendship, transparency, and mutual benefit. 

H.E. General Ronald P. Clark commended the positive trajectory of Cambodia-U.S. military cooperation, noting the resumption of port calls after an eight-year hiatus and extended appreciation for Cambodia's ongoing humanitarian efforts in the search and recovery of missing American personnel – a significant gesture of goodwill and commitment to shared humanitarian values. He emphasised that the purpose of his visit was to reinforce and expand bilateral defence ties between Cambodia and the U.S., particularly between the RCA and USARPAC. 

Both commanders also engaged in constructive discussions on a range of cooperative initiatives, including (1) Cooperation in Humanitarian Mine Action (2) POW/MIA (3) Subject Matter Expert Exchanges (SMEE) across various military domains (4) RCA-U.S. Land Forces Talks (5) Exploring the possibility to co-host Indo-Pacific Armies Management Seminar (IPAMS) and (6) the resuming of Angkor Sentinel Exercise.

By C. Nika