REAM: A US warship on Saturday made a port call at a Cambodian naval base for the first time since Chinese renovations that have raised concerns in Washington, AFP journalists saw.
The United States has said Ream Naval Base, off Cambodia’s southern coast, could give China a key strategic position in the Gulf of Thailand near the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.
The littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati (LCS-20) docked Saturday morning at one of the base’s piers 150 meters (yards) away from a pair of Chinese warships.
“It is our privilege and our honor to be here as the first US naval vessel to moor pierside at Ream Naval Base, and we hope this is the beginning of a longstanding tradition and friendship,” Andrew J. Recame, the ship’s commanding officer, told reporters.
Cambodian leaders have repeatedly denied that the base is for use by any single foreign power, following US media reports in 2022 saying the new facilities at Ream — originally built partly with US funds — would be exclusively for the Chinese navy.
Ream base said in a statement that the five-day US visit would “promote cooperation between the two countries,” and that it showed Cambodia’s “commitment in implementing an open policy, transparent and cooperation with international partners.”
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and a delegation from China’s People’s Liberation Army inaugurated the base in April last year.
Hun Manet denied the new and improved facility would be for Beijing’s “exclusive” use, saying ships from other countries would be allowed to dock.
Two weeks after its inauguration, two Japanese warships were the first vessels to dock at the base.
Beijing has since 2022 been contributing to a revamp of the Ream Naval Base, which was originally built partly using US funds.
Western concerns about the base go back as far as 2019, when The Wall Street Journal reported on a secret draft deal allowing China to dock warships there.
In late 2023, Chinese warships first docked at the 363-meter (1,190-foot) pier, on Cambodia’s sole coastline in the south of the country between Thailand and Vietnam.
A US warship docked in the commercial Sihanoukville port in 2024 in the first American military port call in Cambodia in eight years.
On Saturday morning, AFP journalists saw two Chinese warships still docked at the base.
Cambodia has long been one of China’s staunchest allies in Southeast Asia, and Beijing has extended its influence over Phnom Penh in recent years.
Under former leader Hun Sen — Prime Minister Hun Manet’s father — China poured billions of dollars into infrastructure investments, while Washington’s relationship with Phnom Penh has deteriorated in recent years.
US warship makes first call at Cambodia’s Chinese-renovated naval base
https://arab.news/v3uwt
US warship makes first call at Cambodia’s Chinese-renovated naval base
- The littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati docked Saturday morning at one of the base’s piers 150 meters away from a pair of Chinese warships
Epstein files reveal links to cash, women, power in Africa
- Documents attest to Epstein’sclose ties with Karim Wade, son of former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade
- They also reveal his ties to Nina Keita, niece of Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara
PARIS: Jeffrey Epstein built close ties with powerful figures in Senegal and Ivory Coast, files released by the US government last month show, detailing the late sex offender’s influence network across Africa.
Emails, scheduled meetings, investment projects, and loans reviewed by AFP attest to the disgraced New York financier’s close relationship with Karim Wade, son of former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade.
They also reveal his ties to Nina Keita, niece of Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara.
Wade and Epstein met in 2010 through Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who recently resigned as CEO of port giant DP World after mounting pressure over his close friendship with Epstein.
The pair quickly struck up a rapport.
“Thanks for coming. I think there are many things to consider... I feel confident that we will have fun,” Epstein wrote to Wade on November 15, 2010 after their first meeting in Paris.
“Have a safe trip back to your paradise Island,” Wade replied.
While Wade’s exchanges show no link to Epstein-related sex trafficking crimes, they do reveal conversations on potential business ventures in various sectors, such as finance and energy.
Nicknamed the “Minister of Heaven and Earth” for the multiple portfolios he held including international cooperation, energy, and air transport, Wade was a powerful figure in Senegal until April 2012, when his father’s bid for a third term sparked deadly riots.
Epstein saw him as “one of the most important players in africa” and invited him to meet close contacts such as Ehud Barak, then Israel’s defense minister.
He also put him in touch with Chinese businessman Desmond Shum to discuss “offshore banking.”
The US Department of Justice documents show Shum and Wade met in Beijing on May 9, 2011.
That same month, Wade planned an African tour through Senegal, Mali, and Gabon for Epstein.
‘You will not suffer’
Epstein and Wade’s relationship became even more apparent after the latter’s fortunes reversed when his father left office in 2012.
That autumn, Epstein proposed that his “friend” — under the Dakar authorities’ scrutiny over his assets — use his house in Florida.
“You and your family are welcome to use my house in palm beach, staff is there, pool etc. you will not suffer,” Epstein wrote.
“Txs a lot Brother for the advise,” Wade replied a few weeks later to another email, in which Epstein urged him to “stay mentally strong.”
Numerous files suggest Epstein became financially involved on Karim Wade’s behalf after his arrest in 2013 and his 2015 sentencing to six years in prison for corruption.
Karim Wade’s lawyer, Mohamed Seydou Diagne, sent two invoices in May 2014 and July 2015 of $500,000 to one of Epstein’s companies.
Contacted by AFP on Monday, Diagne said he “did not consider it useful to comment.”
Other archives suggest that Epstein covered at least $50,000 in fees for the US lobbying firm Nelson Mullins, hired by Wade’s entourage to secure his release.
Epstein regularly exchanged emails with Robert Crowe, a partner at the firm who kept him informed of their efforts in the US and Senegal.
In a June 16, 2016 email thread where Epstein and Crowe discussed whether then Senegalese president Macky Sall would pardon Wade, Crowe writes: “He has told my friends high up at State that he was going to do it. They have been putting pressure on him!“
Karim Wade was released from prison eight days later, on June 24, and went into exile in Qatar, which he credited for efforts toward his release.
Jeffrey Epstein was told by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem and Nina Keita.
‘A very interesting person!’
The DOJ documents show Nina Keita was close to both Epstein and Karim Wade and that she acted as a regular intermediary while Wade was in prison.
Keita also helped put Epstein in contact with her uncle, president of Ivory Coast since May 2011, and his team.
“He thought you were a very interesting person! ... they were all very happy to have you here,” she wrote on January 20, 2012, after the financier’s visit to Abidjan.
She had booked him the “ministerial suite” of the luxury Hotel Ivoire for that trip.
Ahead of the visit, Epstein had said he hoped to see “very pretty girls there, as well as interesting places.”
“You will!” Keita replied.
Emails show Keita, a former model, at least once sent photos and the phone number of a young woman to Epstein.
He then met this woman at the Ritz hotel in Paris on August 31, 2011.
“ask sadia to send pictures of her sister. i prefer under 25,” Epstein wrote to Keita after the meeting.
Now the deputy general director of Ivorian petroleum stocks company GESTOCI, Keita also appears in a February 2019 will in which Epstein requested that debts owed to him by a number of people be canceled upon his death.
AFP received no response to its requests for comment from both Keita and the Ivorian presidency, or from Karim Wade, who was contacted through his entourage.
The mere mention of a person’s name in the Epstein files does not in itself imply wrongdoing.
