The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand were meeting in Malaysia on Monday to try to reach a ceasefire deal on the fifth day of their fierce border conflict, amid an international effort to halt the fighting.
The Southeast Asian neighbours waging their deadliest conflict in more than a decade accuse each other of starting the fighting last week, before escalating it with heavy artillery bombardment and Thai air strikes along their 817-km (508-mile) land border.
Photographs from the Thai and Malaysian governments showed the Chinese and U.S. ambassadors to Malaysia attending Monday’s meeting in the administrative capital of Putrajaya, held at the residence of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who chairs the ASEAN regional bloc.
“The purpose of this meeting is to achieve an immediate ‘ceasefire’, initiated by President Donald Trump and agreed to by the Prime Ministers of Cambodia and Thailand,” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said in a post on X.
Hun Manet posted photographs of the meeting, showing a U-shaped formation of tables, with himself and the Thai premier seated opposite each other, Anwar at a head table and Chinese and U.S. officials at separate tables behind Anwar.
Anwar had proposed ceasefire talks soon after the border dispute erupted into conflict on Thursday, and China and the United States also offered to assist in negotiations.
The tension between Thailand and Cambodia has intensified since the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief skirmish late in May.
Both sides reinforced border troops amid a full-blown diplomatic crisis that brought Thailand’s fragile coalition government to the brink of collapse.
Trump said he believed both Thailand and Cambodia wanted to settle their differences after he told both their leaders in weekend telephone calls that he would not conclude trade deals with them unless they ended the fighting.
Thailand’s leader said there were doubts about Cambodia’s sincerity ahead of the negotiations in Malaysia.
“We are not confident in Cambodia, their actions so far have reflected insincerity in solving the problem,” Acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters before he left for talks.
“Cambodia has violated international law, but everybody wants to see peace. Nobody wants to see violence that affects civilians.”
Cambodia has strongly denied Thai accusations of having fired at civilian targets, saying instead that Thailand put innocent lives at risk. It has called for the international community to condemn Thailand’s aggression against it.
Even after the peace talks were announced, both sides reported clashes in border areas on Monday.
In the Thai province of Sisaket, Reuters reporters came across an evacuated village about 20 km (12 miles) from the border. Splintered wood and twisted beams were all that was left of a house hit by artillery fire after its residents left.
Power lines drooped over the damaged house, and debris was scattered by the road. The windows of nearby houses were shattered, scattering broken glass.
The area was largely deserted, with stores and restaurants closed, and only military vehicles, tanks and a few cars seen on a nearby four-lane road as random bursts of distant artillery fire pierced the eerie silence.
(Reuters)