While attending the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia last week, Trump signed a new agreement with Cambodia (along with Malaysia and Thailand) to secure critical minerals and gradually reduce reciprocal tariffs on select Cambodian exports to the United States. He further presided over an ASEAN ceremony to mark a ceasefire (which Trump mislabeled as a “peace deal”) between Cambodia and its neighbor, Thailand. For the phone call Trump made to both sides on July 26 to push them to deescalate their conflict, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in August, lauding Trump for his “extraordinary statesmanship” that Hun argued was “vital in preventing a great loss of lives and paved the way towards the restoration of peace.” The question of merit aside, the nomination was a smart piece of Cambodian diplomacy given Trump’s obsession with the peace prize.

For decades, the United States’ relationship with Cambodia has been among the most fraught across Southeast Asia, a region where the U.S.-China great power rivalry is fast intensifying. In the past, Washington and Phnom Penh have vigorously sparred over issues like democracy and human rights as well as concerns about Cambodia’s strengthening Chinese ties. Under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration, however, this is shifting—perhaps rapidly and much to Washington’s strategic benefit and Beijing’s strategic detriment.