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Thailand has suspended a peace deal with Cambodia, which was brokered by US President Donald Trump, less than three weeks after it was signed, reigniting tensions between the south-east Asian neighbours.
Bangkok said it would halt implementation of the agreement after four Thai soldiers were injured in a landmine explosion in Sisasket province, along the border with Cambodia on Monday.
The two countries fought a five-day conflict in July that killed at least 48 people and displaced an estimated 300,000.
“[We] suspend all terms of the implementations in the joint declaration and secondly, suspend the release of prisoners of war to Cambodia,” Thailand’s defense minister Nattaphon Narkphanit said on Tuesday. Thailand had planned to release 18 Cambodian detainees under the deal.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who took office in September, said on Monday that the landmine explosion showed the security situation had not eased. “When it hasn’t decreased, we cannot proceed with anything,” he said.
Thailand has accused Cambodia of laying new landmines along the disputed border despite the deal, under which both countries had agreed to withdraw heavy weapons from border areas.
Cambodia’s defence ministry rejected Bangkok’s accusation, saying it was committed to “working closely with Thailand to promote peace and stability”.
The conflict in July was the deadliest confrontation between the neighbouring countries in more than a decade.
The sides quickly agreed a truce, however, after Trump threatened to halt tariff negotiations with both countries. Thailand and Cambodia ended up with a 19 per cent US tariff rate — lower than the initial levies threatened by Washington but the same level as other south-east Asian countries.
Last month, the countries signed a peace accord in Trump’s presence at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia, which had mediated the peace talks.
As part of that deal, Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to co-operate on removing landmines, and Thailand committed to releasing detained Cambodians.
Cambodia nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, lauding the US president’s “extraordinary statesmanship” in resolving the conflict.
Despite the truce, tensions have persisted between the two countries, which have clashed sporadically in the past over competing territorial claims to ancient temples and surrounding border territory.
The July conflict followed months of simmering tensions after a brief exchange of fire in late May that resulted in the death of a Cambodian soldier and provoked nationalist feelings in both countries.
The conflict also resulted in the ousting of Thailand’s former prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, after she criticised her country’s powerful military to Cambodia’s ex-leader Hun Sen, who leaked a recording of the phone call.
