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3.
air and naval facilities by the Vietnamese Government at Cam Ranh Bay and Danang. More recently there have been reports of Russian naval activity at Kompong Som in Cambodia and of the deployment of the aircraft carrier "Minsk" and the cruiser "Tashkent" in SE
Asian waters. There are also Soviet military and technical advisers in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, reportedly numbering
several thousands.
Soviet military and economic aid to Vietnam
is estimated at US$ 3-4 million per day.
8. The Chinese have condemned these developments as a "grave military threat to the ASEAN countries", pointing out that "the Russians have made it possible to push their Pacific Fleet 2,000
nautical miles further south from Vladivostok". By contrast, the Chinese naval presence in SE Asian waters is very limited, both numerically and geographically, with a small number of vessels being deployed around Hainan and the Paracel Islands (the latter were captured from the South Vietnamese in 1974).
Diplomatic: Political
9.
The Soviet Union maintains diplomatic relations with all the countries of S E Asia with the exception of Brunei. China still has not managed to restore diplomatic relations with Indonesia (broken off after the abortive coup of 1965) nor (in consequence) has she established full relations with Singapore (although this has not proved a barrier to commercial, cultural or even political exchanges). In the special case of Cambodia the USSR recognises the Heng Samrin regime and China that of Democratic Kampuchea. Both powers are looked at warily by the S E Asian states, the Soviet Union as a global super-power, more directly involved than ever before in the affairs of the region since the Cambodian crisis;
China as the giant on the doorstep, for the moment mainly preoccupied with the development of her economy but a potential menance for the future. Both have sought to dispel these misgivings, largely by pointing to the aggressive designs of the other and protesting their own peaceful intentions. The USSR has assiduously cultivated her image as an Asian power and since
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