CAMBODIA is reviewing whether it's military has any US-made weapons or equipment and will either store or destroy them.
The move follows the United States decision to impose an arms embargo on the country on Dec 9, citing "deepening Chinese military influence in Cambodia [that] undermines and threatens regional security" as well as alleged "corruption and human rights abuses".
The Phnom Penh Post reports that Prime Minister Hun Sen had responded to the embargo by directing the Cambodian military to put all US-made arms and military hardware into storage in warehouses or just destroy them outright.
"I take this opportunity to thank the US for its decision to ban the sale of weapons and military equipment to Cambodia."
He said it demonstrated the wisdom of his decision in 1994 when he chose not to change the military's weapons systems over to US-models.
Hun Sen then quipped that armies equipped with US-made weapons tend to lose wars, pointing at Cambodia's defeat in 1975 to Khmer Rouge, which came about despite the US supporting the then government with weapons shipments.
He noted that those weapons imports ran up a huge debt to the US that remains on the country's books to this day despite multiple other regimes having governed Cambodia since then.
"Even recently, the losers of the war in Afghanistan used US weapons. I will trust in our troops' courage, their spirit and determination to fight on the battlefield to protect our territorial sovereignty rather than on weapons alone," Hun Sen said.
The prime minister said this incident was also a lesson for the next generation of Cambodian leaders about the pitfalls of using US-made weapons.
He said that if they want Cambodia's military to remain independent, the country must maintain independence in its defence industry.
Defense Minister Tea Banh told The Post that there were a moderate number of US-made weapons in the country but they were all imported in the early 1970's.
"Yes, there are still US-made weapons here because they were brought into Cambodia during [former PM] Lon Nol's time and it was a lot of weapons. If we're just talking about the bombs they dropped from air, there were millions of tonnes of them.
"Back when Lon Nol finally lost the war, there were still a huge amount of US-made weapons in different warehouses and other places stored across the country. But most of them would be too old to be used by now," he said.
Tea Banh said that under the current government, Cambodia has never purchased arms from the US.
However, some equipment such as military vehicles had been donated by the US, though there was not much of it in current use.
Meanwhile, political analyst Lao Mong Hay said Cambodia would probably be better off if the prime minister would respond to attempts at coercive diplomacy by the US with silent and stoic indifference rather than anger.
"Such vehement and mocking responses aren't dignified in character and won't improve the image of our nation or its leaders in the wider world.
"The relationship between Cambodia and America will not get any better with responses like that and it could cause further negative fallout to ensue, including sanctions against commercial entities or suspension of Cambodia's preferential trade status," he said.