KUALA LUMPUR, OCT 26 (AFP/APP): US President Donald Trump jetted into Malaysia on Sunday to oversee the signing of a Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire pact, after deadly cross-border clashes between the countries flared this summer.
Here’s what we know about their agreement to uphold a truce, Trump’s role in sealing the deal and the conflict at the heart of the matter.
– What’s in the deal? –
Thailand and Cambodia witnessed their worst cross-border clashes in decades in July, when a territory dispute boiled over into five days of open combat along their jungle-clad frontier.
At least 40 people were killed and 300,000 forced to flee their homes as soldiers traded gunfire, fighter jets launched sorties and rocket barrages rained down.
The joint declaration between the Thai and Cambodia prime ministers, witnessed by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, contains paragraphs of broad pro-peace rhetoric and a few concrete details.
Both sides agreed to remove heavy weapons and landmines from the border, and to establish a ceasefire monitor team from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc chaired by Anwar.
They also agreed to “refrain from disseminating or promoting false information” in a bid to “foster an environment conducive to peaceful dialogue”.
Thailand will “promptly release” 18 captured Cambodian soldiers.
While the deal agrees both sides will continue a dialogue through cross-border committees, it does not resolve the core territorial dispute which caused fighting to flare.
– What’s Trump’s role? –
Thailand and Cambodia agreed an initial truce on July 28 after interventions by Trump, as well Malaysian leader Anwar and a team of Chinese diplomats.
But Trump hoarded credit, describing himself as “the President of PEACE” on social media at the time and recently boasting he had “proudly brokered” the armistice.
Both Thailand and Cambodia were courting trade deals with Washington amid Trump’s global tariff blitz when he intervened, stoking speculation that the president used economic leverage to force the truce.
Trump called the peace pact signing on Sunday a “monumental step”, and the White House swiftly announced new trade agreements with both countries.
A non-binding memorandum of understanding with Thailand outlines measures to increase cooperation on trading rare earth minerals, which are vital to tech products and of which China is the world’s leading producer.
The headline of the Cambodian trade deal confirms the 19 percent levy the country had already secured this summer, a let-off from the 36 percent Trump had been threatening.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a statement on Sunday repeating his claim that he has nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the conflict.
– Is it all solved? –
The Thai-Cambodia conflict flared over a smattering of border temples, contested because of a vague territorial demarcation made by Cambodia’s French colonial administrators in 1907.
The International Court of Justice granted Phnom Penh sovereignty over one of the most coveted temples in 1962 and a small patch of land around it in 2013, but Thailand does not recognise its jurisdiction.
The deal touted by Trump in Kuala Lumpur does not wade into the specifics of the territorial spat, which has sparked numerous rounds of violence over decades.
Khoo Ying Hooi, associate professor of international and strategic studies at the University of Malaysia, said any deal between the countries would be “more symbolic than substantive”.
“The border issues have been there for a long time,” she told BFM news radio.
Trump’s comments, though, represent the deal as drawing a line under the dispute — like many other global showdowns he claims to have put to rest.
“This is a momentous day for all of the people of Southeast Asia, as we sign a historic agreement to end the military conflict between Cambodia and Thailand,” he said.
“Today’s signing represents just one of eight conflicts that we’ve ended in eight months of the Trump presidency.”
