Thailand and Cambodia Agree on Unconditional Cease-Fire

After almost a week of deadly clashes along the Thai-Cambodian border, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has announced that the two countries have agreed a cease-fire, set to come into effect at midnight local time, 1.pm Eastern Time Monday. Talks between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai took place in Malaysia on Monday, mediated by the host country with both the United States and China also involved in negotiations. “President Donald Trump has been in contact with the leaders of both countries, urging the leaders to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” Ibrahim said reading from a joint statement on Monday.  Trump said that he held talks with both Manet and Wechayachai over the weekend. “They are also looking to get back to the “Trading Table” with the United States, which we think is inappropriate to do until such time as the fighting stops,” he wrote on Truth Social before the cease-fire was announced. The cease-fire will be followed by a meeting of regional commanders on Tuesday to discuss the halt in clashes, Ibrahim added, who is the current chair of trading bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). On August 4, defense attaches will also meet for discussions led by Ibrahim. Cambodia and Thailand have been engaged in five days of fighting in which at least 35 people have been killed and more than 200 injured. Both countries have accused the other of igniting the recent clashes that are part of a decades-long border dispute. Tensions between the two began to rise in May, when Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged fire along the border, leading to the death of a Cambodian soldier.  In June, skirmishes along the border flared up once again. In order to try and quell the escalation, former Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra rang Hun Manet’s father, Hun Sen to soothe tensions. But Hun Sen leaked the phone call, in which Paetongtarn criticized one of her own generals, leading to protests and her suspension pending an ethics investigation. Hun Sen’s apparent betrayal of the former Thai Prime Minister’s trust is one of the factors that has only increased tensions along the border in recent months. Since then, Thailand has hit several targets in Cambodia with the use of an F-16 fighter jet, and artillery and rocket fire has killed dozens in Thailand in response since last Thursday.