Trump’s call broke deadlock in Cambodia-Thailand border crisis
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Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet (left) and Thailand's Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai (right) agreed to a ceasefire in talks mediated by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on July 28.
PHOTO: AFP
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BANGKOK – First came a push from the Malaysian premier, then China reached out, but it was only after US President Donald Trump called Thailand’s leader last week that Bangkok agreed to talks with Cambodia to end an escalating military conflict
A flurry of diplomatic efforts over a 20-hour window sealed Thailand’s participation in ceasefire negotiations with Cambodia, hosted in Malaysia, halting the heaviest fighting between two South-east Asian countries in over a decade.
Reuters interviewed four people on both sides of the border to piece together the most detailed account of how the truce was achieved, including previously unreported Thai conditions for joining the talks and the extent of Chinese involvement in the process.
When Mr Trump called Thai Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai on July 26, two days after fighting erupted along a 200km long stretch of the border, Bangkok had not responded to mediation offers from Malaysia and China, said a Thai government source with direct knowledge.
“We told him that we want bilateral talks first before declaring a ceasefire,” the source said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Thailand had already made it clear that it favoured bilateral negotiation and initially did not want third-party mediation to resolve the conflict.
On July 27, a day after his initial call, Mr Trump said Cambodia and Thailand had agreed to meet to work out a ceasefire, and that Washington would not move ahead with tariff negotiations with both until the conflict had ended.
The source said as the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministries started talking, following Mr Trump’s call, Bangkok set out its terms: The meeting must be between the two prime ministers and at a neutral location.
“We proposed Malaysia because we want this to be a regional matter,” the source said.
“The US really pushed for the meeting,” a second Thai source said. “We want a peaceful solution to the conflict, so we had to show good faith and accept.”
Cambodia had accepted the initial Malaysian offer for talks, but it was Thailand that did not move ahead until Mr Trump’s intervention, said Mr Lim Menghour, a Cambodian government official working on foreign policy.
Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Manet’s government also kept a channel open with China, which had shown interest in joining any peace talks between the neighbours, he said, reflecting Phnom Penh’s close ties to Beijing.
“We exchanged regular communication,” Mr Lim Menghour said.
Good faith
On July 28, Mr Phumtham and Mr Hun Manet went to the Malaysian administrative capital of Putrajaya, where they were hosted by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, also the current chair of the 10-member Asean.
At the end of their talks, the two leaders stood on either side of Datuk Seri Anwar, who read out a joint statement that said Thailand and Cambodia would enter into a ceasefire from midnight and continue dialogue.
The rapid parleys echoed efforts to diffuse severe border clashes
But those talks had not directly involved the US and China.
The fragile ceasefire was holding as at July 31, despite distrust on both sides, and neither military has scaled down troop deployment along the frontier.
Cambodia and Thailand have, for decades, quarrelled over undemarcated parts of their 817km land border, which was first mapped by France in 1907 when the latter was its colony.
In recent months, tensions began building between the neighbours after the death of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish in May and escalated into both militaries bolstering border deployments, alongside a full-blown diplomatic crisis.
After a second Thai soldier lost a limb last week to a landmine that Thailand alleged Cambodian troops had planted, Bangkok recalled its ambassador to Phnom Penh and expelled Cambodia’s envoy. Cambodia has denied the charge.
The fighting began soon after.
Since the ceasefire deal, Mr Hun Manet and Mr Phumtham have been effusive in their praise for Mr Trump, who had threatened 36 per cent tariffs on goods from both countries coming to the US, their biggest export market.
The Thai sources did not say whether tariff talks had been impacted by the border clashes. Mr Lim Menghour said after the “positive talks, President Donald Trump also showed positive developments” regarding tariffs, without elaborating.
Mr Trump said tariff negotiations with both countries resumed after the ceasefire agreement
