U.S. to donate $600,000 in military aid for Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, The United States plans to donate more than 600,000 U.S. dollars in "non-lethal" military aid to Cambodia in 2009, national media on Tuesday quoted U.S. Embassy spokesman as saying.

The United States expects to give 635,000 U.S. dollars in aid toward countering transnational criminal activities, including anti-drug trafficking and demining programs, John Johnson told English-language newspaper the Cambodia Daily.

The aid encompasses an estimated 575,000 U.S. dollars in Foreign Military Funding, which is used to buy vehicles, protective gear as well as medical and communication equipment, and about 60,000 U.S. dollars in International Military Education and Training Funding, which is primarily for English-language education, he added.

The U.S. suspended military aid for Cambodia at the end of last century and lifted the restriction two years ago.

In 2008, it donated 1.5 million U.S. dollars in peacekeeper training, 1 million U.S. dollars in demining assistance, and nearly 3 million U.S. dollars in other humanitarian programs in the kingdom, according to the embassy.