[Cringing Negativism Network]

IMHO India should perhaps be making friendly gestures to Cambodia.

[Tailgunner Joe]

India should ally with Thailand and Singapore to keep China from dominating the Straits of Malacca. India needs to cut off China from its “string of pearls.”

[Cronos]

IMHO India should perhaps be making friendly gestures to Cambodia.

india SHOULD -- but those will be of civilisational importance, not strategic. Cambodia's army isn't the strongest in the world. However Cambodia's civilisation IS Indic -- they were Hindus with Hindu priests from India, then became Buddhists after Buddhism travelled from India again.

TJ is right that India should overtly ally itself with Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia and Japan -- and now Sri lanka -- an alliance of democracies in the Indian Ocean. Probably also toss in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.

[MimirsWell]

If India needs to choose with Vietnam and Thailand on one side and Cambodia on the other, I think India is better of siding with the former. India is more aligned with these countries in their perception of China than is Cambodia. Cambodia is a backwater for the Chinese.

the Angkor Wat is not enough reason to perceive a country as Indic. Thailand and Vietnam have Hindu temples too.

And being pragmatic is about choosing smaller communists against larger ones.