ASIA : Thaw in Viet-China Ties May Clear Path to Cambodia Peace

BANGKOK, Thailand —  A significant warming of relations between China and Vietnam appears to have been the primary reason for the recent progress achieved in peace negotiations among the four parties in Cambodia’s civil war, Western diplomats say.

Bitter adversaries since 1979, Beijing and Hanoi in the last six weeks have virtually ceased hostile propaganda toward each other and have begun acting like old friends.

For example, Nguyen Trung, Vietnam’s ambassador to Thailand, on July 19 publicly hailed China’s contribution to the Cambodian peace process, an unthinkable accolade even two months ago. The comment followed a round of talks in Beijing by Cambodia’s Supreme National Council, a hybrid government authority made up of six members of the government in Phnom Penh and six members of the resistance coalition fighting against it.

The meeting, which agreed on a delegation to send to the United Nations in the fall, was symbolically important because China in the past has been virtually the sole international supporter of the Khmer Rouge, the extreme Maoist guerrillas who governed Cambodia from 1975 until 1979.

Phnom Penh Prime Minister Hun Sen, making his first visit ever to the Chinese capital last week, was received with fanfare by Xu Dunxin, a Chinese deputy foreign minister. In an account of the meeting by the Cambodian press agency SPK, Hun Sen thanked the Chinese for their “warm hospitality,” which he said facilitated the visit by the Phnom Penh delegates.

In reply, Xu Dunxin “highly praised the goodwill and flexible attitude” by Hun Sen’s government, SPK said. “This is a new phase for the comprehensive solution of the Cambodian problem,” the agency quoted him as saying.

Such niceties may sound like a pro forma diplomatic exchange. But the two governments have had few kind things to say about each other since Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979, ousted the pro-Beijing Khmer Rouge from power and installed the current government in Phnom Penh.

A dramatic change in the relationship was evident between June 5, when four-party Cambodian talks ended in Jakarta with no progress, and June 24, when the SNC held its first working meeting in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya and agreed on a cease-fire in the war.

According to diplomats, one of the key developments in the interim was a leadership reshuffle in Vietnam. Announced on June 28, the Vietnamese ousted from the ruling Politburo two senior leaders known for their anti-Beijing attitudes: Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach and Interior Minister Mai Chi Tho.

Both officials were removed for internal political reasons, but diplomats said the Vietnamese “are glad the Chinese are happy. The Vietnamese have given an extremely high priority to improving the relationship with China.”

Western diplomats believe that China has grown weary of the Cambodian problem, in part because Beijing was being identified with the Khmer Rouge--which was responsible for more than 1 million deaths in Cambodia under its reign--at a time when China itself is being criticized for human rights abuses at home.

Diplomats believe that Beijing made a military assessment of the situation in Cambodia and concluded that the Khmer Rouge, while the strongest of the three resistance factions, had little chance of ousting the current government in Phnom Penh.

More important to China, according to the diplomats, is the creation of a neutral or at least non-Vietnamese-controlled Cambodia.

The four Cambodian factions are scheduled to meet in Bangkok late next month to tackle some of the most difficult, unresolved aspects of the negotiations concerning international monitoring of the cease-fire and differences over dismantling of military forces during an interim period leading up to elections.

Diplomats cautioned against assuming that the new Chinese-Vietnamese relationship had solved all of their bilateral problems, which they noted, have historical roots stretching back thousands of years.