US to provide $57.9 million to help implement Cambodian-Thai accords

BANGKOK – The US will provide US$45 million (S$57.9 million) in assistance to Cambodia and Thailand, a senior US diplomat for East Asia said on Jan 9 during a visit to the region, to help solidify President Donald Trump’s peacemaking efforts between the two.

“The United States will continue to support the Cambodian and Thai governments as they implement the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords and pave the way for a return to peace, prosperity, and stability for their people and the region,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Michael DeSombre said in a statement.

A senior US State Department official said Mr DeSombre will meet senior Thai and Cambodian officials in Bangkok and Phnom Penh on Jan 9 and 10 to discuss the implementation of the peace accords “and broader efforts to promote our shared interests in a safer, stronger and more prosperous Indo-Pacific”.

Mr DeSombre said the US, which has slashed its global foreign assistance programmes under Mr Trump, would provide US$15 million for border stabilisation to help communities recover and to support people displaced by the recent conflict, and US$10 million for demining and clearing of unexploded ordnance.

The US would also provide US$20 million for initiatives that will help Cambodia and Thailand combat scam operations and drug trafficking, and other programmes, he said.

The Trump administration has made combating the so-called

scam centres based in South-east Asia

a priority, as US citizens have been targeted by their financial fraud operations.

Border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand

flared up again in December after the collapse of a previous ceasefire deal brokered in July by Mr Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to end a previous round of conflict.

The South-east Asian neighbours

agreed on another ceasefire

at the end of December, halting 20 days of fighting that killed at least 101 people and displaced more than half a million on both sides. The more recent clashes included fighter-jet sorties, exchanges of rocket fire and artillery barrages.

Thailand is a long-time US ally, while Washington has sought to improve relations with Cambodia to try to woo it away from strategic rival China. REUTERS