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Friday, February 09, 2007

Frigate makes port call in Cambodia


First time Navy has docked there in 30 years
By Sopheng Cheang - The Associated PressPosted : Friday Feb 9, 2007 9:41:06 EST


SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia — A Navy warship docked at Cambodia’s main seaport Friday, the first port call by an American naval vessel to the Southeast Asian nation in more than three decades.

The guided-missile frigate Gary, with 200 officers and crew, was greeted by a team of Cambodian naval officers and U.S. Embassy staff at Sihanoukville, 115 miles southwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.

U.S. Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said the ship’s visit was a sign of the “deepening of the relationship” that “has not always been that good” between the two countries.

“It’s been pretty rocky over the last 55 years, but for the last several years, we have demonstrated that Cambodia and the United States ... should be friends and work together closely,” he said.

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military heavily bombed suspected communist guerrilla strongholds in Cambodia up until 1974.

Eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed fighting Khmer Rouge forces on Koh Tang, a Cambodian island in the Gulf of Thailand, in May 1975. Marines fought for three hours trying to rescue the captured crew of the U.S. Merchant Marine vessel Mayaguez without knowing they had already been released by the Cambodian communists.

The U.S. halted military assistance to Cambodia following a 1997 coup, but relations have improved recently, with Washington endorsing greater military cooperation.

During his trip to Cambodia in July 2006, Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the U.S. could assist in training Cambodian military personnel and provide them with nonlethal aid such as trucks.

Sailors from the Gary will spend the weekend taking part in community activities in a village near Sihanoukville, including hosting public health education classes for the villagers, repairing a local clinic and donating toys and clothes to an orphanage, an embassy statement said.

The Gary departs Sihanoukville on Tuesday.

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