11 - Cambodia's Relations with France since the Paris Agreements of 1991

Summary

Cambodia and France have had a close relationship since France intervened in 1863 and colonized the country, whilst helping Cambodia to fend off the territorial ambitions of Thailand on the East and Vietnam on the West. For France, Cambodia, together with Laos, constituted an “island of French culture in the Far East”. This is not to say that their relationship has not suffered periods of stress. A former French diplomat wrote astutely in his memoirs that the relationship between France and its former colony Cambodia was “an amalgamation of amorous heartache, mutual irritation, and nosedives”.

A close look at the relationship between the two countries since the signature of the Paris Agreements on Cambodia in October 1991 may explain the reasons behind the ups and downs of this special rapport.

At the outset, it should be pointed out that the relationship between the two countries had been shaped, as in the case of Cambodia's relations with China, by the close bonds existing between King Norodom Sihanouk, a francophone and Francophile, and leading French personalities, in particular General Charles de Gaulle. The French disapproved of the overthrow of Samdech Norodom Sihanouk as they felt that it had complicated the situation in the whole of Indochina. “Sihanouk, whatever his failings, had kept his country out of the war. General de Gaulle had chosen Phnom Penh as the locality in which to deliver his key speech on Indo-China, precisely because Cambodia could pre-figure a neutral Indo-China. The problem was no longer a purely Vietnamese problem but a global problem of Indochina”.

Relations between Cambodia and France nose-dived from being excellent to almost reaching a breaking point during 1970-75, as France refused to grant accreditation to a new Cambodian Ambassador, in the weeks after the overthrow of Norodom Sihanouk on 18 March 1970. After the proclamation of the Khmer Republic, France withdrew its Ambassador from Cambodia in July 1971 while maintaining increasingly close contacts with the exiled former monarch through France's Ambassador in Peking.

Cambodia's new leaders in Phnom Penh were profoundly disappointed with France's attitude, but they saw use in maintaining relations with the former colonial power as there were strong personal and cultural ties.