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Thailand and Cambodia have expressed willingness to discuss a ceasefire to end border fighting that has killed more than 30 and displaced tens of thousands, after US President Donald Trump called both countries’ leaders and threatened to end trade talks.
The Cambodian government welcomed Trump’s intervention, but Thailand’s response was more cautious, with Bangkok saying it “would like to see sincere intention from the Cambodian side”.
“I just had a very good call with the Prime Minister of Cambodia, and informed him of my discussions with Thailand, and its acting Prime Minister,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “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.”
Trump added: “They have agreed to immediately meet and quickly work out a Ceasefire and, ultimately, PEACE!”
Thailand and Cambodia’s export-reliant economies both face a 36 per cent tariff that Trump has threatened to wield from August 1, and have been seeking to fend this off in negotiations with Washington.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said after midnight that acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai had spoken to Trump “and expressed that Thailand agrees in principle to have a ceasefire in place”. It added: “However, Thailand would like to see sincere intention from the Cambodian side.”
Hun Manet, Cambodia’s prime minister, said early on Sunday that in his conversation with Trump, “Cambodia agreed with the proposal for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between the two armed forces”.
“This is positive news for the soldiers and people of both countries,” Hun Manet said, but added that he hoped “the Thai side will not reverse position”.
The worst fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in more than a decade broke out on Thursday around the Ta Muen temple, which both countries claim, before spreading to other parts of their border region.
There has been artillery fire into each other’s territory. The fighting has displaced at least 130,000 people in Thailand and more than 80,000 in Cambodia, and killed at least 33 people.
The fighting continued into Sunday, according to Thailand’s army, which said that “the first shots were fired into Thai territory in several areas including civilian homes”, and that it had “responded in self-defence at limited military targets” since the violence began on July 24. Cambodia on Sunday also accused Thailand of firing into its territory from 2am.
Thailand has accused Cambodia of targeting civilian areas and hospitals, but Cambodia’s foreign ministry has dismissed this as a “baseless accusation”.
UN secretary-general António Guterres on Saturday called on both sides to agree to a ceasefire, while Malaysia, the south-east Asian regional bloc’s current chair, has also offered to mediate to end the fighting.
During India and Pakistan’s military clash in May, the Trump administration intervened to urge a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Pakistan nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in June, but India played down Trump’s role in ending the fighting, saying that the ceasefire had come at Pakistan’s initiative.
