US Military Aid Tops $1 Million, Official Says

By Sok Khemara,
VOA Khmer
Washington
19 February 2008

Sok Khemara reports in Khmer (1.15 MB) - Listen (MP3)

The US Department of Defense has spent more than $1 million on military aid Cambodia over the last two years, a defense official said Friday.

Of that money, about 90 percent was budgeted to foreign military financing, with the remaining money spent on an international military education training program, said Maj. Stewart Upton, a Defense Department spokesman.

Four Cambodian students are training in English language for the Defense Language Institute, and a Cambodian cadet is attending the US military academy West Point, he said.

The US resumed aid to Cambodia last year, following a cessation in the wake of the July 1997 coup.

Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh said US assistance was not much yet, but that officials on each side were considering other areas for bilateral aid.