SISAKET, Thailand/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday (Jul 26) that the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand had agreed to meet immediately to quickly work out a ceasefire, as he sought to broker peace after three days of fighting along their border.
In a series of social media posts during a visit to Scotland, Trump said he had spoken to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thailand’s acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, and warned them that he would not make trade deals with either of the Southeast Asian governments if the border conflict continued.
“Both Parties are looking for an immediate Ceasefire and Peace,” Trump wrote as he gave a blow-by-blow account of his diplomatic efforts.
Before Trump spoke to the two leaders, clashes on the Thai-Cambodian border persisted into a third day and new flashpoints emerged on Saturday as both sides said they had acted in self-defense in the border dispute and called on the other to cease fighting and start negotiations.
More than 30 people have been killed and more than 130,000 people displaced in the worst fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours in 13 years.
There were clashes early on Saturday, both sides said, in the neighbouring Thai coastal province of Trat and Cambodia’s Pursat Province, a new front more than 100 km from other conflict points along the long-contested border.
The two countries have faced off since the killing of a Cambodian soldier late in May during a brief skirmish. Troops on both sides of the border were reinforced amid a full-blown diplomatic crisis that brought Thailand’s fragile coalition government to the brink of collapse.
As of Saturday, Thailand said seven soldiers and 13 civilians had been killed in the clashes, while in Cambodia five soldiers and eight civilians had been killed, said Defense Ministry spokesperson Maly Socheata.
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