The top U.S. Army officer for the Asia-Pacific region began a two-day visit to Cambodia Monday in a trip designed to expand and improve frayed ties between the two nations.

General Ronald P. Clark, the commanding general of the United States Army Pacific met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and senior Cambodian military officials in Phnom Penh.

Ties between the U.S. and Cambodia have been strained with Washington’s criticism of Cambodia’s political repression and human rights violations.

However, the U.S. and other countries are also greatly concerned with Cambodia’s close ties with China. Of special interest is China’s access to the Ream Naval Base near the disputed South China Sea, a waterway China claims almost in full.

In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague rejected China’s sweeping claims. The naval base is strategically located in the Gulf of Thailand, which borders the western section of the South China Sea. The base’s renovation was funded by China.

China has contributed massive amounts of money to Cambodia’s updating of its infrastructure with the help beginning when the prime minister’s father, Hun Sen, was leading the country.

That funding continues and later Monday, Manet met with Yin LI, a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a post on the prime minister’s Telegram account.

The post said the Li praised the progress on “all cooperation in all fields” between Cambodia and China.

During the meeting, Clark also expressed his admiration for Cambodia for sending U.N. peacekeepers to several international locations, according to the prime minister’s office.

The prime minister also thanked the U.S. for its assistance in helping to clear explosives from Cambodia after years of war that left Cambodia in the late 1990s with 4 million to 6 million land mines and other unexploded ordnance, including unexploded U.S. bombs.

Clark also met Monday with General Mao Sophan, Cambodia’s military chief.

The two military generals had “constructive discussions,” the army said in a statement. Topics of their talks included defense, trade, tourism, counterterrorism, peacekeeping and demining, the Cambodian army said.

Their discussion also included the possible revival of the Angkor Sentinel exercise, the joint military exercises previously held by the U.S. and Cambodia that were abandoned nearly 10 years ago, the army said.

Some information provided by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

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