This article describes India's development cooperation with Cambodia: lines of credit and gifts, small projects under the Mekong Ganga Cooperation initiative, training, and cooperation in defence. It draws only on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) brief on India and Cambodia of June 2026.

Scope of cooperation

According to the MEA brief of June 2026, India has been assisting Cambodia in diverse fields for its economic and social growth, and continues to do so. The brief states that recent years have seen cooperation expand into:

  • institutional capacity building;
  • human resource development;
  • financial assistance for infrastructure projects;
  • social security projects;
  • capacity building in defence.

Lines of credit and gifts

India has extended lines of credit to Cambodia for:

  • Water Resource Development;
  • a Transmission Line;
  • the supply of water pumps.

In the past, India also gifted medicines, rice and indelible ink to Cambodia. In 2015, India assisted in a project to redevelop the India-Cambodia Friendship school.

Quick Impact Projects

Under the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) initiative, India has been assisting Cambodia every year since 2015-16 with small socio-economic projects known as Quick Impact Projects. They cover the following fields:

  • agriculture;
  • health;
  • women empowerment;
  • capacity building;
  • sanitation;
  • environment;
  • information technology.

The brief states that these projects have received an overwhelming response and created a distinct and visible impact among beneficiaries.

Training and capacity building

In addition to the existing schemes of training Cambodians under the ITEC programme and ICCR scholarships for students, India has committed, as a major initiative towards capacity building, to assist in setting up a Centre of Excellence in IT and IT-enabled services in Cambodia.

Defence cooperation

According to the brief, cooperation in the defence sector has continued through:

  • an annual training capsule for the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces in Peacekeeping and Demining modules;
  • defence courses under ITEC;
  • goodwill visits by Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard ships;
  • the exchange of official delegations.

The Inaugural India-Cambodia Bilateral Army Exercise (CINBAX-II) took place in Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia, in May 2026.

India has also gifted fifteen sniffer dogs to Cambodia for demining activities, and an Infantry Weapon Training Simulator.

India's defence ministers have visited Cambodia: Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman in June 2018, and Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh in November 2022 for ASEAN-related events.