Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an immediate ceasefire on Saturday, after weeks of deadly border clashes that unraveled a peace deal championed by President Donald Trump in late October.
“Both sides agree to maintain current troop deployments without further movement” and “not to undertake provocative actions that may escalate tensions,” according to a joint statement signed by the countries’ defense ministers. The deal went into effect at noon local time.
The two sides agreed to allow the many thousands of residents displaced from the affected border areas to return “at the earliest … to their homes.” Thailand also agreed to free 18 Cambodian troops it has detained since July — a key Cambodian demand — once the ceasefire has held for 72 hours.
An observer team from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, while Thailand and Cambodia pledged to “maintain regular and direct” communication.
Hours before the deal was announced, the Cambodian government accused Thailand of carrying out bombing “deep into Cambodian sovereign territory.”
Thailand’s air force launched airstrikes on Cambodia this month, reigniting the violent confrontations that erupted earlier in the year between the two neighbors, the worst in decades. The countries, which share a disputed 500-mile border, blamed each other for breaking the ceasefire, and both claimed to be acting in self-defense.
Thai officials said one civilian was killed as a direct result of the renewed fighting this month, while 44 civilians were collateral fatalities. Twenty-six Thai soldiers also were killed, the Associated Press reported, citing officials. Cambodia has not confirmed the number of military deaths, but said 30 civilians were killed and 90 injured, according to the AP.
Thailand, a U.S. defense treaty ally, has the more powerful military.
The October agreement between Thailand and Cambodia was among a number of peace deals that Trump has claimed to have brokered since beginning his second term, after five days of violence in July that killed several dozen people and displaced tens of thousands. However, regional and U.S. officials told The Washington Post in October that Malaysia was the central mediator between the two countries.
The following month, however, Thailand suspended the deal after four of its soldiers patrolling the border region were injured by a land mine. Thailand said the mine was newly laid by Cambodian forces — a claim Cambodia denied.
In mid-December, Trump said on social media that the two sides had agreed to return to the ceasefire, though hours later Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said his country would “continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people.”
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