Cease-Fire in Deadly Thailand-Cambodia Conflict Gets Armies' Backing
The military talks came a day after the civilian leaders of Thailand and Cambodia, meeting in Malaysia, agreed to a cease-fire that was brokered on Monday by President Trump and Malaysia's prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. The deal seemed to end, at least for now, days of fighting that killed at least 38 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, although Thailand's army on Tuesday accused Cambodia of continued attacks.
The military talks were being closely watched because both armies, particularly Thailand's, are influential political players and were not represented at the discussions in Malaysia.
Both Thailand and Cambodia said their commanders had agreed to immediately stop fighting; to refrain from sending more troops to the border area; to strengthen communication on both sides; and to form a working group to ensure that the cease-fire is fully implemented.
'We agreed not to send more troops. That is the key development,' said Lim Menghour, the director general of Cambodia's National Assembly, the lower house of the country's Parliament.
Regional commanders from both sides held talks in three separate meetings. One meeting, between commanders of Thailand's Second Army Region and Cambodia's Fourth Military Region, which were involved in the fiercest fighting, was briefly postponed, but officials later confirmed that it had taken place.
Mr. Lim Menghour said there was a good atmosphere at those talks, which were held in the Cambodian border town of Os Mach. 'I think if Thailand fully implements the agreed terms in the meeting and resolves the conflict peacefully, the situation will be back to normal pretty soon,' he added.
The next talks on the border dispute are set for Monday, when defense ministers from both countries will meet. Malaysia will be an observer at those discussions.
The fighting began on Thursday and continued for roughly five days, as Thailand and Cambodia pounded each other with attacks along the disputed border, including airstrikes.
On Tuesday morning, in a Cambodian border region where residents had been hearing blasts for days, there was a lull. Cambodian officials said there had been no attacks since the cease-fire took effect at midnight.
But Maj. Gen. Winthai Suvaree, a spokesman for Thailand's army, accused Cambodia of violating the cease-fire deal by firing in several areas near the disputed border early on Tuesday. Ms. Maly Socheata rejected those accusations.
'I would like to reassure everyone that Cambodia's troops are now firmly implementing orders and the cease-fire agreement since midnight,' she said.
Thailand's acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, played down the reports of continued fighting, blaming 'undisciplined soldiers' on the Cambodian side.
'We responded without going overboard,' he told reporters. 'When they fired small arms, we fired small arms back. We did not escalate. At the moment, it is considered calm.'
Mr. Phumtham also made it clear that the army was central to Thailand's decision-making about the cease-fire. He said his civilian government took the army's advice 'on how we want to negotiate.'
'At the moment, we want the military to take part in talks and make decisions,' he said.
Sun Narin contributed reporting from Siem Reap, Cambodia, and Kittiphum Sringammuang from Bangkok.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's pursuit of meeting with Chinese leader reveals the complex web of US-China relations
WASHINGTON (AP) — China, the adversary. China, the friend? These days, maybe a bit of both. From easing export controls to reportedly blocking the Taiwanese president's plans to travel through the United States, President Donald Trump is raising eyebrows in Washington that he might offer concessions that could hurt U.S. interests in his quest to meet, and reach a deal with, the Chinese leader. There is no firm plan for Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. But it's widely believed that the men must meet in person, likely in the fall, for the two governments to ink a trade deal, and some are worried that Xi is leveraging Trump's desire for more giveaways. "The summit mismatch is real. There's a clear gap between Trump's eagerness for a face-to-face with Xi and Beijing's reluctance to engage," said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies. There are concerns that Trump may throttle back on export controls or investment curbs to preserve summit prospects, Singleton said, warning the risk 'isn't just in giving away too much' but also "in letting Beijing set the tempo.' China-U.S. relations have pinballed often since Washington established relations with communist-led Beijing in 1979. They've hit highs and lows — the latter in the aftermath of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, after a 2001 incident involving a U.S. spy plane, during the COVID pandemic and right now. Both countries have struggled to understand each other, which has sometimes gotten in the way of deeper partnerships. And this time around, there's a wild card: the anything-might-happen second presidency of Trump. Disputes often accompany potential US-China leader meetings Efforts by a U.S. president to meet the head of the authoritarian Chinese government have often met with partisan outcries — which happened when former President Joe Biden hosted Xi in California in 2023. But Trump's case is peculiar, partly because he is willing to break with conventional political restraints to make deals and partly because his own party has grown hawkish towards China over national security. 'With President Trump, everything seems to be open for negotiation, and there are few if any red lines,' said Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the global consultancy Teneo. 'The hawks worry that if Trump gets into a room with Xi, he will agree to extraordinary concessions, especially if he believes that a big, beautiful deal is within reach.' While most Republican lawmakers have not voiced their concerns openly, Democrats are vocal in their opposition. "President Trump is giving away the farm to Xi just so he can save face and reach a nonsensical trade deal with Beijing that will hurt American families economically," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On Tuesday, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration 'has not wavered — and will never waver — in safeguarding our national and economic security to put America first.' 'The administration continues to have productive conversations with China to address longstanding unfair trade practices,' Desai said, adding that export controls on cutting-edge technology and many tariffs remain in place. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after his latest round of trade negotiations with the Chinese in July, told CNBC that the team was 'very careful to keep trade and national security separate.' And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing on Fox News Radio, said the U.S. remains 'as committed as ever to our partners ... in places like Taiwan' but also spoke of the strategic need to keep trade ties with China steady. 'In the end, we have two big, the two largest economies in the world,' Rubio said. 'An all-out trade conflict between the U.S. and China, I think the U.S. would benefit from it in some ways, but the world would be hurt by it." There's worry over Taiwan Taiwan is concerned that the self-governing island could be 'trade-able' when Trump seeks a deal with Beijing, said Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan. 'Our concern is that, will any of the trade deals lead to concession on political support for Taiwan?" Hsu said, citing the case last month where the White House allegedly blocked a request for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through the United States. The U.S. maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and has always allowed such transits in the past. Experts are worried that the Trump administration is setting a bad precedent, and Democrats have seized on it to criticize Trump. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, called the move 'both a sharp break from precedent and another example of the Trump administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal." He said the policy decision 'sends a dangerous signal' that Taiwan's democracy is negotiable. Hsu said Taiwan fears that Trump could be coerced or compelled to support the one-China principle, as espoused by Beijing, that acknowledges Beijing's sovereignty claim over the island. There are also concerns that Trump might utter anything in support of 'unification." That was a request Beijing raised with the Biden administration, though it failed to get a positive response. Now, it's upon Taiwan to persuade Trump to think of the island as 'an economic partner rather than something that he can trade when he negotiates with China,' Hsu said, suggesting that Taiwan step up defense commitments, increase energy procurement, open its market to U.S. companies and invest more in the U.S. But Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Trump is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act, a domestic law that obligates the U.S. to maintain an unofficial relationship with the island and provides it with sufficient hardware to deter any invasion by China. 'He can dial the (U.S.-Taiwan) relationship up and down," Sun said, "but he can't remove the relationship.' Export controls have been instituted, to mixed results In April, the White House, citing national security, announced it would restrict sales of Nvidia's H20 computer chips to China. The ban was lifted about three months later, when the two governments had climbed down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. The decision upset both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to stress that the U.S. cannot let the Chinese Communist Party 'use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation.' In Stockholm, Bessent pushed back at the concern that national security might be compromised. 'We are very diligent,' Bessent said, adding there's an interagency process that involves the National Security Council and the Defense Department for decisions. 'There's nothing that's being exchanged for anything,' Bessent said. Addressing H20 chips specifically, Bessent said they 'are well down" Nvidia's "technology chips stack.' U.S. companies are banned from selling their most advanced chips to China. That might not be persuasive enough. Teneo's Wildau said China hawks are most worried that the H20 decision could be the beginning of a series of moves to roll back export controls from the Biden era, which were once considered 'permanent and non-negotiable.' Didi Tang, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Hill
26 minutes ago
- The Hill
Russia breaks self-imposed freeze on intermediate-range missiles
Moscow justified its move by pointing to efforts by the U.S. and its allies to develop and deploy similar weapons systems in Europe and Asia. 'Since our repeated warnings in this regard have been ignored and the situation is developing along the path of the actual emplacement of the US-made ground-launched INF-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, the Russian Foreign Ministry has to state that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons have ceased to exist, ' the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a lengthy statement on Monday. 'The Ministry is authorized to declare that the Russian Federation no longer considers itself bound by the relevant previously adopted self-restrictions,' the ministry added. Russia imposed the moratorium after the U.S. backed out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 2019, accusing Moscow of breaching the agreement, which barred both military powers from deploying intermediate-range missiles that have a range of between 310 miles and 3,400 miles. The Foreign Ministry did not say when or where Russia may deploy the weapons. The announcement came just days after President Trump said the U.S. military was moving two nuclear submarines closer to Russia in response to 'highly provocative statements' made by Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is currently the deputy chair of Russia's Security Council. Russia's move also comes after Trump shortened the deadline for Moscow to reach a ceasefire with Ukraine and get on a path toward a potential peace agreement. Trump, who has called for the end of the war in Eastern Europe that has raged for nearly three-and-a-half years, spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, exchanging assessments of the situation on the ground, going over potential sanctions against Russia and joint efforts by European nations to supply Ukraine with more weapons. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Russia this week for what the president said was the Kremlin's 'last chance' to reach a peace deal before Washington's sanctions kick into place.
The Hill
26 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump's pursuit of meeting with Chinese leader reveals the complex web of US-China relations
WASHINGTON (AP) — China, the adversary. China, the friend? These days, maybe a bit of both. From easing export controls to reportedly blocking the Taiwanese president's plans to travel through the United States, President Donald Trump is raising eyebrows in Washington that he might offer concessions that could hurt U.S. interests in his quest to meet, and reach a deal with, the Chinese leader. There is no firm plan for Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. But it's widely believed that the men must meet in person, likely in the fall, for the two governments to ink a trade deal, and some are worried that Xi is leveraging Trump's desire for more giveaways. 'The summit mismatch is real. There's a clear gap between Trump's eagerness for a face-to-face with Xi and Beijing's reluctance to engage,' said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies. There are concerns that Trump may throttle back on export controls or investment curbs to preserve summit prospects, Singleton said, warning the risk 'isn't just in giving away too much' but also 'in letting Beijing set the tempo.' China-U.S. relations have pinballed often since Washington established relations with communist-led Beijing in 1979. They've hit highs and lows — the latter in the aftermath of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, after a 2001 incident involving a U.S. spy plane, during the COVID pandemic and right now. Both countries have struggled to understand each other, which has sometimes gotten in the way of deeper partnerships. And this time around, there's a wild card: the anything-might-happen second presidency of Trump. Disputes often accompany potential US-China leader meetings Efforts by a U.S. president to meet the head of the authoritarian Chinese government have often met with partisan outcries — which happened when former President Joe Biden hosted Xi in California in 2023. But Trump's case is peculiar, partly because he is willing to break with conventional political restraints to make deals and partly because his own party has grown hawkish towards China over national security. 'With President Trump, everything seems to be open for negotiation, and there are few if any red lines,' said Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the global consultancy Teneo. 'The hawks worry that if Trump gets into a room with Xi, he will agree to extraordinary concessions, especially if he believes that a big, beautiful deal is within reach.' While most Republican lawmakers have not voiced their concerns openly, Democrats are vocal in their opposition. 'President Trump is giving away the farm to Xi just so he can save face and reach a nonsensical trade deal with Beijing that will hurt American families economically,' said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On Tuesday, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration 'has not wavered — and will never waver — in safeguarding our national and economic security to put America first.' 'The administration continues to have productive conversations with China to address longstanding unfair trade practices,' Desai said, adding that export controls on cutting-edge technology and many tariffs remain in place. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after his latest round of trade negotiations with the Chinese in July, told CNBC that the team was 'very careful to keep trade and national security separate.' And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing on Fox News Radio, said the U.S. remains 'as committed as ever to our partners … in places like Taiwan' but also spoke of the strategic need to keep trade ties with China steady. 'In the end, we have two big, the two largest economies in the world,' Rubio said. 'An all-out trade conflict between the U.S. and China, I think the U.S. would benefit from it in some ways, but the world would be hurt by it.' There's worry over Taiwan Taiwan is concerned that the self-governing island could be 'trade-able' when Trump seeks a deal with Beijing, said Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan. 'Our concern is that, will any of the trade deals lead to concession on political support for Taiwan?' Hsu said, citing the case last month where the White House allegedly blocked a request for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through the United States. The U.S. maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and has always allowed such transits in the past. Experts are worried that the Trump administration is setting a bad precedent, and Democrats have seized on it to criticize Trump. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, called the move 'both a sharp break from precedent and another example of the Trump administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal.' He said the policy decision 'sends a dangerous signal' that Taiwan's democracy is negotiable. Hsu said Taiwan fears that Trump could be coerced or compelled to support the one-China principle, as espoused by Beijing, that acknowledges Beijing's sovereignty claim over the island. There are also concerns that Trump might utter anything in support of 'unification.' That was a request Beijing raised with the Biden administration, though it failed to get a positive response. Now, it's upon Taiwan to persuade Trump to think of the island as 'an economic partner rather than something that he can trade when he negotiates with China,' Hsu said, suggesting that Taiwan step up defense commitments, increase energy procurement, open its market to U.S. companies and invest more in the U.S. But Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Trump is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act, a domestic law that obligates the U.S. to maintain an unofficial relationship with the island and provides it with sufficient hardware to deter any invasion by China. 'He can dial the (U.S.-Taiwan) relationship up and down,' Sun said, 'but he can't remove the relationship.' Export controls have been instituted, to mixed results In April, the White House, citing national security, announced it would restrict sales of Nvidia's H20 computer chips to China. The ban was lifted about three months later, when the two governments had climbed down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. The decision upset both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to stress that the U.S. cannot let the Chinese Communist Party 'use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation.' In Stockholm, Bessent pushed back at the concern that national security might be compromised. 'We are very diligent,' Bessent said, adding there's an interagency process that involves the National Security Council and the Defense Department for decisions. 'There's nothing that's being exchanged for anything,' Bessent said. Addressing H20 chips specifically, Bessent said they 'are well down' Nvidia's 'technology chips stack.' U.S. companies are banned from selling their most advanced chips to China. That might not be persuasive enough. Teneo's Wildau said China hawks are most worried that the H20 decision could be the beginning of a series of moves to roll back export controls from the Biden era, which were once considered 'permanent and non-negotiable.'
