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Tough-talking Thai PM Anutin brings border conflict with Cambodia to the brink
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Displaced civilians at a temporary shelter in Thailand's Buriram province on Dec 9, amid Thai-Cambodian border clashes.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- Thai PM Anutin adopts a tough stance, threatening military action against Cambodia for border incursions, potentially driven by pre-election nationalism. Cambodia responds by accusing Thailand of bullying, aiming to leverage the conflict at the international level.
- Fighting intensifies across multiple fronts, with neither side showing any intention of backing down.
- Mr Anutin denies Malaysian media report late on Dec 9 saying that Thailand had agreed to a ceasefire with Cambodia, brokered by Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim; the report was taken down roughly one hour after it was published on its website.
AI generated
BANGKOK – As fighting raged for a second day along the contested Thai-Cambodian border, the complexion of the reignited conflict rested on how much store should be put by the heightened rhetoric from Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.
If it is taken at face value, Mr Anutin and his army chiefs have set an express target of asserting Thailand’s overwhelming military superiority by incapacitating Cambodia’s military installations along the border.
