The US Army is currently considering Cambodia as a possible host for some of its extensive stockpiles of equipment kept overseas, known as “prepositioned stocks”.

While such stocks can be placed to facilitate rapid regional deployment, and to foster bilateral and regional military cooperation, the US Army Pacific director of public affairs, Colonel Rumi Nielson-Green, said yesterday that any equipment stored in Cambodia would be “primarily related to disaster response and mitigation”.

Cambodia is one of four countries, alongside Bangladesh, Malaysia and Vietnam, being considered as potential new hosts for caches of equipment, roughly large enough to supply an entire unit, known as “activity sets”.

There is currently no agreement in place between Cambodia and the United States over the US Army storing such supplies in the Kingdom, and Nielson-Green was keen to stress the consultative process that would be involved prior to any decision. “The content of any future activity set would conform to the desires and needs of the accepting country and would be stored in accordance with host nation rules.”

According to a report in Defense News, the US Army’s consideration of these new locations is a response to its tightened budget. The strategic placement of activity sets promises to cut down the time and cost of rapid deployments.