
Thailand, Cambodia expected to hold ceasefire talks on Monday
Acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet will reportedly meet on Monday afternoon.
Military clashes broke out in a disputed border region last week. More than 30 people on both sides, including civilians, have reportedly been killed.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said, "I called the prime ministers of each, and I said we're not going to make a trade deal unless you settle the war."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that State Department officials are on the ground in Malaysia to assist the peace efforts.
Hun Manet said in a social media post that China will take part in the meeting.
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Japan Times
9 hours ago
- Japan Times
Self-Defense Forces to discontinue annual review ceremony
An annual Japanese Self-Defense Forces review ceremony will no longer be held in principle due to mounting SDF duties in an increasingly severe security environment, according to the Defense Ministry. On Wednesday, the ministry said that it has become difficult to continue the event, which will not be held unless the security environment changes dramatically in the future. In the review ceremony, hosted in turns by the Ground, Maritime and Air SDFs every autumn, the prime minister, or the supreme SDF commander, gives instructions to the troops gathered from around the country. It is also designed to help Japanese nationals deepen their understanding of SDF activities. In the face of increased military activities by China and Russia around Japan, however, the SDF needs to concentrate its personnel on surveillance and other efforts to cope with the situation, according to the ministry. The review ceremony began in 1951, during the time of the National Police Reserve, the predecessor of the SDF. In November last year, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attended a review ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Defense Agency, currently the Defense Ministry, and the SDF, at a training field of the GSDF's Camp Asaka, which straddles Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture.

Japan Times
9 hours ago
- Japan Times
Cambodia's Hun Sen at the helm in border conflict with Thailand
When weeks of tensions escalated into a major border conflict with Thailand last week, former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to take charge of his country's response. Photographs showed him at the end of a long table, speaking with military officers and poring over detailed maps, radio set in hand and a cup of Starbucks coffee within arms reach. The former guerrilla fighter is no longer Cambodia's leader, having passed on the premiership to his eldest son in 2023 after nearly four decades in power, and has taken over as the president of the Southeast Asian nation's Senate. But Hun Sen played an outsized role in events leading up to the deadliest fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in over a decade and — according to three diplomatic sources — showed his continuing influence during the five-day conflict. On Friday, after artillery fired from Cambodia landed in civilian areas in Thailand's border provinces, the Thai army took direct aim at him. "Based on available evidence, it is believed that the Cambodian government, led by Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, is behind these appalling attacks," it said in a statement, using honorifics for the veteran politician. Within hours of the clashes breaking out, Hun Sen, 72, was sharing a flurry of posts on Facebook, his favoured social media platform, to rally his people and criticize Thailand. In one photograph he posted, Hun Sen is seen in a video conference call with a dozen people, including several soldiers. In another post, he shared a photo of himself in combat fatigues. "On the border clashes, what strikes me is the extent to which he goes to create the optics of being in charge — wearing the uniform, being seen as directing the troop movements, intervening on Facebook," said a Cambodia-based diplomat. Like all the other diplomats interviewed for this story, he asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Lim Menghour, a Cambodia government official working on foreign policy, said Hun Sen acted as the main logistics commander for troops on the frontline. "He has always monitored and kept observing the situation all the time," he said. Foreign military attaches from major powers and ASEAN member countries, along with diplomats from 13 countries, inspect the closed An Ses border checkpoint, also known as Chong Arn Ma in Thai, on Wednesday. | Reuters In contrast to his father, Cambodia's incumbent premier Hun Manet, a four-star general and graduate of the West Point military academy in the United States, remained more muted on social media in the early days of the conflict, changing tack as he readied to travel to Malaysia for negotiations that yielded a ceasefire. Chhay Sophal, a Phnom Penh-based author of books on Hun Sen and his family, said the former premier can direct the government in his capacity as the president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party. "So, the prime minister must respect and follow the party's policy and president," he said. A Cambodia government spokesman did not respond to questions. Thailand and Cambodia have bickered for decades over undemarcated sections of their 817 km (508 miles) land border, which has also led to fighting in the past. The recent tensions began rising in May, following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a skirmish, and have steadily escalated since — a situation that Thai premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra sought to diffuse when she spoke directly with Hun Sen on June 15. A partial recording of the call was initially leaked, where Paetongtarn, 38, can be heard criticising a Thai general and kowtowing to Hun Sen, who later released the full audio of their conversation, triggering a political crisis in Thailand. In a rambling three-hour televised speech in late June, Hun Sen openly rebuked Paetongtarn for her handling of the border row and attacked her father, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, long seen as his ally. "At least before the flare-up, he was very much right there in your face," said a regional diplomat who closely tracks Cambodia. "I mean, he was the one who was mostly visible, who was making all the pronouncements." Hun Sen is a wily survivor of Cambodian politics and the wider tumult across Southeast Asia over the last half-a-century. Born to rice farmers in a province heavily bombed during the secret U.S. war in Cambodia and Laos, he became a soldier for the Khmer Rouge, whose murderous regime from 1975 to 1979 killed about a quarter of the population. But he defected to Vietnam in 1977 and, when they overthrew the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen returned as foreign minister and then rose to become prime minister. The self-styled strongman presided over an economic boom in Cambodia, with per capita income almost quadrupling from $240 to $1,000 in the decade from 1993 to 2013. But much of the newfound wealth came to be concentrated in the hands of the country's ruling elite, even as political rivals were jailed or exiled, critical media outlets shuttered and civil dissent crushed, paving the way for Hun Manet to take over. In recent months, even domestic administrative policy decisions were being brought to Hun Sen for approval, according to the regional diplomat who interacts with Cambodian officials. Now, the border conflict has made his clout more apparent, and there has been an outpouring of support for the government on social media amid a wave of nationalism. "It hasn't surprised anyone that he's taken the lead which tells you everyone knew he was in charge," another Cambodia-based diplomat said. "If the goal is to strengthen nationalism, he has succeeded."


Nikkei Asia
9 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
South Korea's chip push and dark days for Japan Display
Hello. This is Kenji from Tokyo, your host for this week's #techAsia newsletter. Much of Japan has been hit by blistering heat waves for days and weeks, and the debate over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff, trade and investment policy remains just as hot. Under the scorching Tokyo sun on Tuesday, Chinese government officials extended an olive branch to Japanese businesses, promoting the country's biggest trade exhibition, the Canton Fair. Luo Xiaomei, minister in charge of economic and commercial affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, and Ma Fengmin, deputy director general of the China Foreign Trade Centre, the organizer of the fair, were helped in this effort by the Association for the Promotion of International Trade, Japan (JAPIT), a traditionally pro-Beijing Japanese business group. JAPIT is one of the seven major bilateral "friendship organizations" and traces its history back to 1954, 18 years before the opening of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Masahito Yasuda, senior executive director at JAPIT, said the Trump administration's trade policy is bringing uncertainty to the economic outlook, leading to "the need to enhance economic cooperation between Japan and China more than ever." There was no mention of heightened personal security risks following the sentencing in Beijing of a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma over espionage charges or mounting tensions over the East China Sea during the gathering. Japan, the European Union and South Korea have all agreed with the Trump administration to set their "reciprocal" tariffs at 15%, with a similar rate on cars, in exchange for making substantial investments and purchasing American goods. India, an increasingly important hub for iPhone production, has been hit with a 25% rate. China, meanwhile, faces an Aug. 12 deadline to reach a tariff agreement. The most recent negotiations between the two countries in Stockholm failed to produce a major breakthrough, with U.S. tech export controls seen as one of the sticking points. South Korea's chip drive Amid the massive uncertainty of Trump's tariff policy, South Korea's big tech players continued to chart a path forward, both commercially and technologically, in chips. Samsung Electronics has clinched a $16.5 billion deal to supply semiconductors for Tesla by the end of 2033, marking a major win in its contract chipmaking business. Nikkei Asia's Kim Jaewon reported that while Samsung kept its customer name confidential by only referring to it as a "big global company," Tesla CEO Elon Musk spilled the beans on his X account. Musk further revealed that Samsung's new site in Texas "will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip." The deal is a major relief for Samsung, which is set to invest over $37 billion in Texas in the coming years, as the South Korean chipmaker looks to catch up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the global leader in the chip foundry business. Separately, LG Electronics is working to develop a hybrid bonder, a device that attaches multiple chips together in the same package, according to Nikkei's Nami Matsuura. This marks LG's full-fledged entry into chipmaking devices, a segment stimulated by the growing demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) used for generative artificial intelligence applications. Hanmi Semiconductor, which holds a 90% global share in a device called thermocompression (TC) bonders used to manufacture HBM, is investing 100 billion won ($72.3 million) to build a new hybrid bonder plant in the city of Incheon, with plans to begin operations next year. The company's ambition is to break into the top 10 global chipmaking device producers by the end of the decade. 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