Cambodia Eyes Strategic Partnership with France as Military Ties Deepen

PHNOM PENH — Sept. 16, 2026: Cambodia and France are preparing a roadmap to lift their relationship to a strategic partnership, with defence cooperation emerging as a central pillar, according to the High Command Headquarters of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

General Vong Pisen, Commander-in-Chief, welcomed Major General Stephane Richou, head of the French security and defence cooperation mission in Cambodia, at the High Command Headquarters on Wednesday morning.

General Vong Pisen said relations between the two countries have continued to advance and that both sides are working toward elevating ties to strategic partnership level. He recalled France's contribution to Cambodia's peace process through the Paris conferences, which culminated in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, and French support for Cambodia's development across multiple sectors.

On the defence front, he thanked the French military for training Cambodian personnel through scholarships and courses, especially for United Nations peacekeeping missions, and outlined plans to broaden cooperation in human resource training, exchange visits and information sharing, counter-terrorism, cybersecurity, transnational crime, human trafficking, narcotics and technology-based fraud. He also pointed to humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, peacekeeping, inter-service cooperation, naval port calls and joint exercises as areas for expansion.

General Vong Pisen briefed the French side on conditions along the Cambodia-Thailand border and restated Cambodia's commitment to resolving border issues peacefully, on the basis of international law and existing bilateral agreements, and to the principle that borders cannot be altered by force. He thanked France for supporting a ceasefire and for efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the border conflict.

Major General Richou thanked Cambodia for the briefing and said he would report the information to the French Ministry of Defence. He praised the Cambodian military's expertise in mine and unexploded ordnance clearance, describing it as experience that could be shared with ASEAN countries.

He also gave a positive assessment of Cambodian military trainees who studied in France, saying they had demonstrated strong French-language skills and brought pride to Cambodia.

Both sides noted that the upcoming visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Cambodia would be an opportunity to strengthen friendship and ties and to push forward the process of elevating Cambodia-France relations toward a strategic partnership.

Source: High Command Headquarters of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces


Reported by The Khmer Daily Network