Veasna Var states the challenges Cambodia faces in the South China Sea dispute and then provides foreign policy recommendations:

Maintaining the status quo would be a desirable option for Cambodia. The country is likely to remain under pressure from both Vietnam and China for the foreseeable future. It cannot afford to abandon Vietnam as its neighbor, the Philippines as its Asean co-member or the US. But nor can Cambodia afford to risk its economic partnership with China.

To best serve its national development interests Cambodian foreign policy should emphasis its strict adherence to its neutrality, non-alliance and peaceful co-existence approaches as spelled out in the Cambodian constitution. This neutrality provides the best option for Cambodia to effectively deal with complex regional and international situations.

It also aligns with Cambodia’s ‘Rectangular Strategy’, which spells out the importance and necessity of integrating Cambodia into the international community.

Keeping all sides in the South China Sea happy is truly challenging for Cambodia’s foreign policy and requires an extraordinary degree of diplomacy. Cambodia could play a diplomatic role in keeping itself informed and warning others not to let differences spill over to the use or threat of force.

Cambodia could propose a mechanism that allows Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines to take the lead in negotiations. At the same time, Cambodia should support, or at least not obstruct, consensus in Asean.