Japan's defense minister begins visits to Cambodia and Vietnam, both under Beijing's shadow

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Japan’s defense minister held talks with senior officials in Cambodia, a top ally of China, on Monday as he began a Southeast Asian trip that will also take him to Vietnam, whose relations with Beijing are complicated by maritime disputes.

Japan has historically maintained warm relations with Cambodia, but its influence is minor compared to that of China, Tokyo’s biggest geopolitical rival in Asia, with growing influence throughout Southeast Asia. Tokyo is disturbed by China’s aggressive maritime activity, as are several Southeast Asian nations, and seeks to counter Beijing's diplomatic and economic outreach.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara held talks with his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Seiha, as well as with Prime Minister Hun Manet and former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is now president of the Senate, Defense Ministry spokesperson Gen. Chhum Sochet said on his Facebook page.

He said the two defense ministers vowed to promote cooperation. especially in human resources and exchanges of personnel visits, as spelled out in a 2013 memorandum of understanding.

A separate Defense Ministry statement said the two sides agreed to hold a joint military training course covering disaster rescue operations and to exchange military attachés.

Kihara told reporters before his trip that Japan has been stepping up defense ties with Cambodia and Vietnam in recent years and that he hopes to deepen cooperation.

“Southeast Asian countries are in strategically important areas that are part of Japan’s crucial sea lanes,” Kihara said.

He said Japan has elevated its relations with both Cambodia and Vietnam to the level of comprehensive and strategic partnership.

Kihara said he hoped to share his “understanding of the strategic environment” in the region and reinforce defense and security cooperation with Cambodia and Vietnam.

Kihara's visit coincided with Cambodia’s breaking ground on Monday on a controversial China-backed canal linking the capital, Phnom Penh, with the sea, despite environmental concerns and the risk of straining ties with neighboring Vietnam.

The $1.7 billion, 180-kilometer (110-mile) Funan Techo canal is to connect Phnom Penh with Kep province on Cambodia’s southern coast, giving it access to the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia hopes the 100-meter (328-foot) -wide, 5.4-meter (17-foot) -deep canal will lower the cost of shipping goods to the country’s sole deepwater port, Sihanoukville, and reduce reliance on Vietnamese ports.

China has gained outsize political and economic influence in Cambodia through aid and investment in major infrastructure projects.

Cambodia is a key regional diplomatic partner for Beijing, helping dampen criticism within the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, several of whose members are engaged in territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.

In June 2022, China helped Cambodia break ground on a naval port expansion project that has raised concerns from the U.S. and others that it could give Beijing a strategically important military outpost on the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodian officials deny China will have any special basing privileges and say their country maintains a neutral defense posture.

In this photo released by Cambodian Defense Ministry, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, left, shakes with his Cambodian counterpart Tea Seiha at the Defense Ministry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (Cambodian Defense Ministry via AP)

Russia’s Federal Security Service on Friday accused six British diplomats of spying and said a decision has been made to withdraw their accreditation.

Russian state TV quoted an official from the security service known as the FSB as saying that they will be expelled. The expulsions come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Washington for talks with President Joe Biden that will include Ukraine’s request to use Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.

Starmer said on his way to the U.S. that Britain does not “seek any conflict with Russia.” “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia could end this conflict straight away,” he told reporters.

“Ukraine has the right to self-defense and we’ve obviously been absolutely fully supportive of Ukraine’s right to self-defense — we’re providing training capability, as you know. But we don’t seek any conflict with Russia — that’s not our intention in the slightest,” he said.

The FSB said it received documents indicating that the diplomats were sent to Russia by a division of the U.K. Foreign Office “whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on our country,” and that they were involved in “intelligence-gathering and subversive activities.”

Based on these documents and “in response to numerous unfriendly steps by London,” the Russian Foreign Ministry withdrew the accreditation of the diplomats, the FSB said, without identifying them. It warned that if other diplomats are found to be carrying out “similar actions,” the agency “will demand early termination of their missions” to Russia.

Russian state TV said in a report that the six diplomats had met with independent media and rights groups that have been declared “foreign agents” — a label the Russian authorities have actively used against organizations and individuals critical of the Kremlin.

The British Embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. There was no immediate comment from Britain's Foreign Office.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in an online statement that “We fully agree with the assessments of the activities of the British so-called diplomats expressed by the Russian FSB. The British Embassy has gone far beyond the limits outlined by the Vienna Conventions." She said the diplomats were carrying out “subversive actions aimed at causing harm to our people.”

Expulsions of diplomats — both Western diplomats working in Russia and Russian diplomats working in Western countries — have become increasingly common since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian news outlet RBC counted last year that Western countries and Japan expelled a total 670 Russian diplomats between the beginning of 2022 and October 2023, while Moscow expelled 346 diplomats in response. According to RBC, it was more than in the previous 20 years combined.

In May the U.K. expelled Russia’s defense attaché in London, alleging he was an undeclared intelligence officer, and closed several Russian diplomatic properties in Britain that it said were being used for spying.

FILE - The British Embassy building, center, with the Russian Foreign Ministry building, second right, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

FILE - Birds fly with the British Embassy building at center in the background in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)