Thailand-Cambodia border meeting in doubt over venue row

BANGKOK – Thailand on Dec 23 rejected a request by Cambodia to hold bilateral talks in a neutral country, leaving in doubt a planned meeting to negotiate an end to deadly border clashes.

The nations’ longstanding border conflict

reignited in December

, shattering an earlier truce, killing more than 40 people and displacing over 900,000 on both sides, officials said.

The clashing neighbours on Dec 22 agreed to negotiate truce terms this week, but Cambodia asked Thailand to hold the talks in a neutral venue, Malaysia’s capital.

Thailand’s Defence Ministry, however, said on Dec 23 that the bilateral border committee meeting would go ahead in Thailand’s Chanthaburi province from Dec 24 as planned.

“We guarantee Chanthaburi is safe. This province is the original plan for hosting the GBC (General Border Committee) even before the fighting started,” Thai Defence Ministry spokesman Surasant Kongsiri told reporters.

Rear-Admiral Surasant said officials from the border committee would meet from Dec 24 to 27, adding that whether the meeting happened or not depended on Cambodia.

A Cambodian government spokesman told AFP news agency that he had no updated information on the meeting venue.

The conflict between the two nations stems from a territorial dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km border and a smattering of ancient temple ruins situated on the frontier.

Each side has blamed the other for instigating the fresh fighting since Dec 7 and traded accusations of attacks on civilians, after five days of clashes in July killed dozens.

The US, China and Malaysia brokered a truce to end the round of fighting in July, but the ceasefire was short-lived.

Trump weighs in

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Dec 22 announced the parley with Cambodia after a crisis meeting in Kuala Lumpur with his counterparts from ASEAN, of which Cambodia is also a member.

But in a letter dated Dec 22 to his Thai counterpart Nattaphon Narkphanit, Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Seiha requested the meeting be held in Kuala Lumpur.

“Due to the ongoing fighting along the border, this meeting should be held in a safe and neutral venue,” Mr Tea Seiha wrote in the letter, which AFP obtained on Dec 23 and confirmed with the ministry.

Thailand’s Defence Minister told journalists that the last border committee meeting was held in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province, so it was Thailand’s turn to host, adding that there was nothing to fear as Thais could separate military and diplomatic matters.

But Mr Nattaphon also said Thai forces would keep fighting as long as Cambodia did, as combat that has stretched along nearly the entirety of the border so far has calmed only in parts of two provinces.

The Cambodian Defence Ministry said Thai forces shelled the Cambodian border city of Poipet and bombed parts of the border province of Preah Vihear on Dec 23.

In October, US President Donald Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed in Kuala Lumpur to prolong their truce.

But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month.

Mr Trump on Dec 22 referred again to the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand as one of the eight wars he had “solved” around the world.

“Thailand is starting to shape up. You know, they started with Cambodia, they started up again,” he told journalists in Florida.

“But I think... we have that in pretty good shape, to have that stopped.” AFP