Over the weekend, a U.S. Navy warship docked for the first time at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, marking an important step forward in the country’s relations with the United States after two decades of growing alienation.

The USS Cincinnati docked at the naval base on January 24 for a five-day port visit during which its crew of about 100 was scheduled to participate in sporting events and other activities in the city of Sihanoukville, some 30 kilometers distant.

Speaking to reporters after the arrival of the vessel in Sokhemra, the deputy commander of the base said that “our government has worked very hard to build this port so that all foreign vessels that wish to dock in Cambodia can do so,” the Associated Press reported.

The Independence-variant littoral combat ship is the first-ever U.S. warship to dock at Ream, which since 2022 has been the subject of a controversial expansion and refurbishment funded by China’s government. The upgrades, which Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet opened in April of last year, include a 300-meter-long deep-water pier, a 5,000-ton dry dock, a 1,000-ton slipway, and a Cambodia-China Joint Logistics and Training Center.

The Chinese involvement at Ream has attracted the suspicion of Western, and particularly American, security officials, who fear that the base may have evolved into a full-blown Chinese base. The concerns date back to 2019, when the Wall Street Journal reported that then-Prime Minister Hun Sen had signed a secret agreement granting China’s military the right to use the base for a period of 30 years. The Cambodian government has denied this and subsequent reports about Ream, stating that its Constitution prohibited the establishment of a foreign military base on its territory.

The invitation to the U.S. to visit the base, which follows port visits by Japanese and Vietnamese navy vessels last year, is a clear attempt to assuage Washington’s concerns about China’s influence at the base.

Speaking during a press briefing held at Ream’s pier, Adm. Samuel Paparo, Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, thanked the Cambodian government for inviting the vessel to the base, describing it as a sign of the “strong upward trajectory” of bilateral relations.

“All along the way, our Cambodian friends assured us that Ream would be a sovereign port,” said Paparo, who accompanied the USS Cincinnati on its visit to Ream. “Accordingly, this is why USS Cincinnati’s visit is an expression of our confidence in Cambodia’s sovereignty and a good-faith expression of our partnership moving forward.”

During a meeting with Paparo in Phnom Penh yesterday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet described the arrival of the USS Cincinnati as “a tangible result of the growing bilateral relationship.” He also affirmed Cambodia’s intention to join President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, in order to “demonstrate Cambodia’s commitment to supporting and contributing to the promotion of global peacekeeping.”

While in Phnom Penh, Paparo also met with Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha, during which the pair “discussed ways to further strengthen defense and military cooperation between Cambodia and the United States.” As the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh stated after Paparo’s meeting with Hun Manet, “the United States and Cambodia will work shoulder-to-shoulder to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

This messaging reflects the rapid positive turn that U.S.-Cambodia relations have taken over the past several years. This began under the administration of Joe Biden, born out of a recognition that years of narrow American focus on democracy promotion, and its ideological framing of competition with China as a competition between “democracy” and “autocracy,” had soured relations with Phnom Penh while incentivizing the Cambodian government’s drift toward China.

This rapprochement has advanced since the inauguration of the second Trump administration, whose decision to shutter USAID and cut off U.S. funding for democracy promotion efforts and media outlets like Radio Free Asia removed a key impediment to improved relations with Phnom Penh.

In a curious paradox, these improvements have come just when branches of the U.S. government have come officially to recognize the extent of the Cambodian elite’s involvement in the country’s gigantic online scamming industry. In announcing sweeping sanctions against Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, which had privileged access to the country’s leadership, including former Prime Minister Hun Sen, the U.S. Treasury Department claimed that these operations had cost U.S. citizens at least $10 billion in 2024.

The most likely explanation of this paradox is the fragmented and chaotic nature of foreign policy-making under the second Trump administration, as well as the U.S. president’s susceptibility to well-aimed flattery, which has been issuing in abundance from Phnom Penh since Trump helped broker a peace accord in its border conflict with Thailand.

The U.S. and Cambodia have also agreed to restart the Angkor Sentinel military exercise, which was unilaterally canceled by Phnom Penh in 2017, right at the time when Cambodia initiated a similar drill with China’s People’s Liberation Army. The possible resumption of the Angkor Sentinel was first publicly discussed early last year, just prior to President Trump’s return to the White House.

Paparo told the press yesterday that officials from the two nations would begin planning for the drills in February or early March, with the aim of holding the exercise in “the latter part of 2026 or the early part of 2027.” The two countries have also discussed a possible visit of U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to Cambodia in the near future.