On June 10, Russia and China announced the official opening of the Heilongjiang River Bridge, the first transnational highway bridge between the two countries. While confronting the West over the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is turning to Asia for support.

The bridge, more than one kilometer long, connects Blagoveshchensk, the capital of Russia’s far eastern Amur region, with the city of Heihe in northern China’s Heilongjiang province. Although it was started in 2016 and completed in 2019, the opening ceremony was delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to official figures, the bridge, which cost 19 billion rubles (about US$328 million), is a two-lane road. According to Chinese media, the bridge is currently limited to cargo traffic only.

Source: Central News Agency, June 10, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202206100334.aspx

United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly stated that the Australian government will review its 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to Chinese companies. According to information on Albanese’s personal website, as early as 2018 when he was Labor Party’s infrastructure spokesman, he had already publicly opposed allowing the Chinese-owned Landbridge Group Australia to obtain the 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin. Subsequently, Albanese has repeatedly objected, saying that the Port of Darwin should not fall into the hands of any foreign enterprises.

Albanese said he had promised before the May election that when Labor came to power, he would push for a review of Landbridge’s lease. Albanese said Labor had backed the then Scott Morrison administration in the past when it was the opposition party to push for legislation so the federal government could block agreements between local governments and foreign entities. The Port of Darwin is the northernmost deep-water port in Australia and the closest to Asia. It is considered to be an important strategic stronghold for Australia. The Landbridge Group’s lease of the Port continues to be the focus of Australia’s national security controversy. However, in March this year, the Australian government announced that it would spend A$1.5 billion (about US$1.1 billion) to build a new port facility in Darwin. The New Port Plan is based on national security considerations, so that the Australian and US troops can avoid using the Darwin port facilities that Chinese companies operate.

Source: UDN, June 8, 2022
https://udn.com/news/story/6809/6374152?from=udn-catebreaknews_ch2

On June 8 in Cambodia, a ceremony marked the start of the new China-funded construction at Ream Naval Base. The senior Cambodian military and defense officials as well as China’s ambassador to Cambodia attended the ceremony.

According to Gen. Chau Phirun, director-general of the Cambodian Defense Ministry’s material and technical-services department, over the next two years, Chinese firms and technical experts from China’s military will build or renovate a number of structures including a maintenance workshop, a slipway and dry dock for repairing vessels, a warehouse, two new piers, and electrical, water and sewage infrastructures,

Cambodian Defense Minister Gen. Tea Banh said in a speech that the funding for the upgrades will be  from a Chinese grant. He denied that the Chinese forces will use the facility as a naval base.

The Wall Street Journal revealed in 2019 that Beijing had signed a clandestine agreement allowing its armed forces to have exclusive use of a part of Ream Naval Base, which is located on Cambodia’s southern coast facing the Gulf of Thailand.

China is helping Cambodia expand and upgrade Ream naval base in the Southeast Asian country, heightening concerns U.S. officials have expressed for years that Beijing plans to establish a naval outpost there. Experts say Chinese forces would be able to use the Cambodian facility to further assert Beijing’s expansive territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea.

China’s ambassador to Cambodia, Wang Wentian, said at the ceremony, “The Chinese military shall, as always and within its means, provide assistance to the Cambodian military.” Anyone who claims that China is using the facility to expand its influence is “using the yardsticks of knaves to judge a gentleman’s intentions.”

Sources:
1. WSJ, June 8, 2022.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-upgrade-ream-naval-base-in-cambodia-fueling-u-s-concerns-11654674382

2. Epoch times, June9, 2022.                                                                                                                                         https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/6/8/n13755167.htm