General Mao Sophan, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and Commander of the Royal Cambodian Army (RCA), held a bilateral meeting at the RCA headquarters on Monday with visiting General Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Muhammad Hafizuddeain Bin Jantan, Chief of Malaysian Army.
According to the RCA, during the meeting, both commanders highly valued the close and longstanding friendship between Cambodia and Malaysia, which had been established since 1957. They expressed intense satisfaction with the two armies’ continued cooperation and mutual support. The two commanders emphasised the importance of strengthening military-to-military cooperation as part of the broader bilateral relationship.
General Mao Sophan expressed his deep appreciation to the Malaysian Army for its support in providing the RCA with training and capacity-building opportunities. He reaffirmed Cambodia’s commitment to working closely with the Malaysian Army and proposed several cooperation initiatives aimed at fostering friendship, partnership, transparency, and mutual benefit.
General Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Muhammad Hafizuddeain Bin Jantan expressed his sincere gratitude and honour for the warm hospitality extended during his official visit to Cambodia. He further acknowledged that although the Ministries of Defence of both countries have not yet formalised a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation, the pace and progress of bilateral engagement between the two armies have been notably encouraging. He reaffirmed Malaysia’s commitment to continue providing training programmes in 2025 and 2026, contributing to the capacity building of the RCA. Furthermore, he proposed that Cambodia share its valuable experiences in humanitarian mine clearance operations.
Both commanders also discussed the potential to expand cooperation in several key areas, including: (1) Army-to-Army Staff Talk (2) SMEE on various sectors (3) junior officers exchange (4) bilateral or multilateral joint exercises, particularly in the areas of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR).
The meeting concluded with mutually reaffirming the enduring partnership and shared vision for a stable, secure, cooperative regional security environment. AKP