Cambodia, Thailand react cautiously to Trump intervention in conflict
ANANTH BALIGA and YUICHI NITTA
PHNOM PENH/BANGKOK -- Cambodia and Thailand have reacted cautiously to a proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump to implement an immediate ceasefire in a border conflict that has claimed at least 34 lives and displaced more than 150,000 people.
The neighboring kingdoms have been firing at each other with heavy weapons and small arms since Thursday morning, largely over competing claims to territory. The fighting spread on Saturday to several previously peaceful areas and Thailand said it used four fighter jets to attack Cambodian military positions.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
a day ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Cambodian and Thai Officials Meet in Malaysia to Iron out Ceasefire Details
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Thai and Cambodian officials met in Malaysia on Monday for the first round of cross-border committee talks since a tense ceasefire was brokered last week after five days of deadly armed border clashes that killed dozens and displaced over 260,000 people. The four-day General Border Committee meetings were initially due to be hosted by Cambodia, but both sides later agreed to a neutral venue in Malaysia, the annual chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which mediated the halt in hostilities last month. The July 28 ceasefire followed economic pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who had warned the warring nations that the U.S. would not conclude trade deals with them if the fighting persisted. Washington lowered tariffs on goods from the two countries from 36% to 19% on Aug. 1 following the truce. Monday's talks focused on ironing out details to avoid further clashes. Discussions of the decades-long competing territorial claims over the pockets of land near the shared border are not on the agenda. A history of hostility Thailand and Cambodia have been feuding neighbors for centuries, since both were mighty empires. In modern times, a 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice awarding Cambodia the land on which the ancient Preah Vihear temple stands marked a new low point in relations, and other border territory remained claimed by both countries. Fighting erupted in 2011 at Preah Vihaer, after which the ICJ in 2013 reaffirmed its earlier ruling, rankling Thailand. Relations deteriorated again sharply in May this year, when a Cambodian soldier was shot dead in a brief fracas in one of the disputed border zones, setting off diplomatic and trade sanctions, one against the other. Soon after two incidents last month in which Thai soldiers were wounded by land mines in disputed territory — for which Thailand blamed Cambodia — the two sides downgraded diplomatic relations and fighting broke out, each side blaming the other for starting the armed clashes. The talks this week will include finalizing details and scope of reference for an ASEAN monitoring team, Malaysian Chief of Defense Forces Gen. Mohamad Nizam Jaffar said Monday. Despite some reports of attacks after the ceasefire came into effect, Nizam said such incidents were typical spillover violence and both sides showed strong commitment during Monday's talks to uphold the ceasefire. The main session of the General Border Committee on Thursday will be led by Thai Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Natthaphon Nakpanit and Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seih, who also serves as deputy prime minister, and include observers from Malaysia, the United States and China, officials said. Despite the truce, tensions have persisted as both countries organized tours of the former battle areas for foreign diplomats and other observers to highlight damage allegedly caused by the other side. The two countries also continue to accuse each other of having violated international humanitarian laws with attacks on civilians and the use of illegal weapons. The battles are now fought on the propaganda front The propaganda war continues with accusations, denials, and cries of 'fake news,' while supporters of each side also tangle on social media. Each side has blamed the other for starting the fighting and for indiscriminately targeting civilian sites with long-range weapons such as artillery and rockets, and using prohibited weapons. The hottest issue is Cambodia's allegations that Thailand has mistreated and tortured a squad of captured Cambodian soldiers. Two wounded members of the 20-man Cambodian group were repatriated on Friday. However, Thai officials said Monday that the soldiers 'qualify as prisoners of war' and 'will be released and repatriated only when the armed conflict ends,' which it considers a separate matter from last week's ceasefire. Thai military spokesperson Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri said at a news briefing Monday that Thailand has invited representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, and the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, OHCHR, 'to visit the detained Cambodian soldiers on site.' Cambodia had called for such access. Neither the ICRC nor the OHCHR responded to a query from The Associated Press asking about any communications with the two governments. Cambodia's king formalizes former leader Hun Sen's military role A surprise statement on Monday night in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh announced that Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni issued a Royal Decree authorizing the country's influential former leader Hun Sen to work together with his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, in guiding military and national defense affairs. The king's decree said he was acting because the nation 'is suffering from serious violations and threats to its territorial integrity by the Thai soldiers, and in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution of Cambodia.' King Sihamoni generally keeps a low profile and exercises no political power or influence, taking no initiative in any state or government work. The 72-year-old Hun Sen, who is very active on social media, maintained a high profile during the fighting, urging his country's soldiers and hurling invective at Thailand and its leaders. He was once a guerrilla fighter with the Communist Khmer Rouge. It was not clear why Hun Sen would need or want authorization from King Sihamoni, since there has been no open dissent inside the country criticizing his actions during the conflict. The decree appeared to be a response to foreign news stories suggesting Hun Sen was usurping his son's authority. Hun Sen seemed to confirm this, saying on Facebook that he was exercising his rights as a five-star general with experience 'to fight the thieves who invaded my country,' after noting criticism from Thai media.
The Diplomat
2 days ago
- The Diplomat
Cambodia to Nominate President Trump for Nobel Peace Prize, Official Says
Cambodia's government will officially nominate U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, following his efforts to broker a ceasefire in the country's border conflict with Thailand. Speaking to reporters in the capital Phnom Penh on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol thanked Trump for bringing peace and said he deserved to be nominated for the prize. Later, a journalist from Reuters asked him via text message whether this meant Cambodia would nominate the U.S. leader, to which he responded, 'Yes.' Similar calls have since echoed across Cambodian social media. Chanthol's comments came shortly after Trump's updated tariff announcement, which saw Cambodia's import duty dropped to 19 percent, down from the 36 percent threatened in July and the 49 percent initially announced in April. Chanthol headed the negotiation team that engaged in economic talks with the Trump administration. In Malaysia on July 28, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to a ceasefire to end a fierce, five-day border conflict that killed at least 43 people and displaced more than 300,000 people in both countries. According to a report by Reuters that interviewed numerous officials on both sides, a phone call from Trump was crucial in breaking the 'deadlock' between the two nations and getting them to agree to the meeting in Malaysia. In particular, Trump reportedly threatened to cut off trade talks with both nations if they did not cease hostilities. Cambodia is not the first nation to suggest that Trump should be awarded the illustrious prize. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that he had nominated Trump for the award for helping bring his nation's war with Iran to an end. Pakistan also said that it would recommend Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in helping to resolve its short conflict with India in May. Trump has a seeming obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which may have something to do with his long-standing rivalry with former President Barack Obama, who was infamously awarded the prize in 2009, in the first year of his first term in office, seemingly in advance payment for achievements that never eventuated. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that 'it is well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.' Since his inauguration, Trump 'has brokered, on average, one peace deal or ceasefire per month,' Leavitt said. In addition to the Cambodia-Thailand conflict, she mentioned conflicts between 'Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia.' While it is hard to see the Norwegian Nobel Committee taking seriously a Trump nomination, even if he has arguably done more to deserve it than Obama, the prize has a decidedly ambiguous history. In a classic article from 2009, Christopher Hitchens noted the prize's long history of being awarded 'for service to cynicism, opportunism, and hypocrisy.' Under this roll of names, he wrote, could be found those of Yasir Arafat and Henry Kissinger, and their Israeli and North Vietnamese counterparts, who were 'garlanded for 'peace' agreements that were not intended to hold and that led to later outbreaks of lethal violence.' The absurdity of Trump being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is seemingly not an insuperable bar. In any event, whether the peace between Cambodia and Thailand is a lasting one remains to be seen. For now, the ceasefire appears to be holding, but the situation remains far from settled, with both nations making claims and counterclaims that have kept the temperature elevated. Thailand continues to hold 18 Cambodian prisoners that it reportedly captured on Tuesday morning, shortly after the ceasefire came into effect. Meanwhile, Cambodia's Ministry of National Defense yesterday claimed that Thailand was preparing to launch an 'imminent' attack along the border last night, and urged the world 'to act swiftly to prevent any escalation.' No attacks took place, and the situation along the border remained calm as of this morning, as officials from both nations gathered in Malaysia for a four-day meeting of the General Border Committee, aimed at de-escalating tensions.
The Diplomat
4 days ago
- The Diplomat
Trump Cuts Tariffs on Cambodia and Thailand to 19% After Border Ceasefire
The U.S. government has nearly halved its threatened tariffs on imports from Thailand and Cambodia, just days after the two nations declared a ceasefire in a conflict over their border. According to an updated schedule of 'reciprocal tariff rates' issued by the White House late yesterday, both nations have seen their tariffs reduced to 19 percent, down from the threatened 36 percent. Beginning on July 24, the two nations fought a fierce five-day border conflict that has killed at least 43 people and displaced more than 300,000 people in both countries. After the outbreak of the conflict, President Donald Trump threatened to block trade deals with them unless they stopped fighting. By Monday, both countries had agreed to a ceasefire, which, despite mutual claims of violations, continues to hold. While many were reduced considerably from the tariffs unveiled in Trump's 'liberation day' announcement in April, Politico notes that it has lifted U.S. tariffs to 'the highest amount in more than a century.' The new rates come in on August 7. According to the text of an executive order announcing the new rates, the tariffs are intended to address 'the continued lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships and the impact of foreign trading partners' disparate tariff rates and non-tariff barriers on U.S. exports, the domestic manufacturing base, critical supply chains, and the defense industrial base.' The Thai and Cambodian tariffs were announced along with updated rates for 65 other countries, which included tariffs of 40 percent for Laos and Myanmar, 25 percent for Brunei, and 19 percent for Malaysia. It also confirmed the rates that Trump announced with Vietnam (20 percent), Indonesia (19 percent), and the Philippines (19 percent). Singapore and Timor-Leste are the only Southeast Asian nations to be hit just with the administration's baseline 10 percent tariff, a reflection of the fact that the U.S. enjoys trade surpluses with both. Thailand and Cambodia both responded positively to the tariff reduction. In a Facebook post, Deputy PM and Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said that the tariff reduction 'reflects strong Thai-US friendship and keeps Thailand globally competitive while boosting investor confidence and creating new economic opportunities.' He added that the Thai government was preparing 'budget allocations, soft loans, subsidies, tax measures, and regulatory reforms' to help those affected by the tariff. The reduction has also been praised by Cambodia's government. 'This is a good news for the citizens and economy of Cambodia to continue developing the country,' Prime Minister Hun Manet said in a Facebook post today. Phnom Penh has reasons to be satisfied with the outcome. Over the past decade, policymakers in Washington have grown alarmed with Cambodia's increasing economic and security relations with China, particularly with Beijing's refurbishment of (and likely preferential access to) the Ream Naval Base, the first phase of which was inaugurated earlier this year. These U.S. concerns might have been expected to hamper Phnom Penh's ability to negotiate its tariff down from the hefty 49 percent tariff initially announced in April, threatening to push it into the same category as Laos, another close partner of Beijing. As the Southeast Asian nation most exposed to the U.S. market, which took 37 percent of its exports in 2023, this hefty rate threatened to wreck Cambodia's manufacturing sector and potentially cast tens of thousands out of work. Cambodian policymakers will be relieved that they avoided this outcome. Indeed, the fact that such a close Chinese partner was able to obtain the same rate as Thailand, a U.S. treaty ally, speaks partly to the incoherence of the Trump administration's trade policies. It also probably reflects the canny way in which Cambodian leaders have leveraged the recent border conflict to their advantage. In the wake of Monday's ceasefire, Cambodian leaders, including former Prime Minister Hun Sen, went out of their way to praise Trump for his intercession in the border conflict with Thailand. After its announcement, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and chief trade negotiator Sun Chanthol said that Trump should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in facilitating the ceasefire with Thailand – a position that has since been echoed online and in regime-aligned media. U.S.-Cambodia relations, which touched a nadir during the first Trump term, are being rebuilt on a bedrock of flattery. Malaysia would also be relatively satisfied with the 19 percent tariff, which marks a reduction from the 25 percent announced in a 'tariff letter' sent to the country last month. Yesterday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told parliament that the tariff rate 'will ease and not burden our economy.' In fact, eight of Southeast Asia's 11 nations have now secured a tariff rate of 20 percent or lower. Of these, six, which also happen to be among the region's largest exporters, have finalized tariffs of either 19 or 20 percent. This is lower than the 25 percent imposed on India and a nominal total of 79 percent on China (although this is still under negotiation), and higher than the 15 percent imposed on Japan and South Korea. Assuming all of these rates hold, this allows the region to remain relatively competitive in terms of access to the U.S. market, while more or less preserving the current competitive balance between its major exporters. The situation is much worse for Laos and Myanmar, each of which has been slugged with one of the highest tariff rates in the world, despite seeing slight reductions on the 48 percent and 46 percent initially announced by Trump in April. Neither nation trades especially much with the U.S., whose trade with Myanmar totaled $734 million in 2024, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Total trade with Laos came to $844 million. (This compares to the $81 billion in trade that the U.S. conducted with Thailand last year and the $13 billion with Cambodia.) The U.S. was Myanmar's fifth-largest export market in 2022, and Laos' 12th-largest in 2021. Nonetheless, these punitive 40 percent tariffs are set to deepen the economic turmoil in both nations' floundering export-oriented manufacturing sectors, and deepen their already considerable economic connections to China. Exactly why Laos and Myanmar have been subject to such higher duties remains unclear, given the lack of clarity in the Trump administration's trade policy. It could be that neither nation showed what the Trump team considered to be sufficient eagerness to conclude a trade deal prior to the deadline; most of the Southeast Asian nations that successfully negotiated down their tariffs pledged to make large purchases of U.S. goods, including energy, agricultural products, and Boeing aircraft. It could also reflect the extent of their relations with China, or a combination of both. In any event, there is no guarantee that any of the current rates will be stable long enough for investors to begin making significant financial decisions on that basis. The tariffs also supposedly include a tariff of 40 percent for goods that the Trump administration deems to have been transshipped from other nations (i.e. China), although the criteria by which these decisions will be made remain unclear. While Trump has successfully used Washington's economic power to extract economic concessions from its main trade partners, the longer-term impact of the tariff war will likely be detrimental to U.S. economic influence. As my colleague James Guild wrote earlier this week, of the U.S. deals with Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Trump's use of American leverage 'will almost certainly drive countries in the region away from America and toward other trade and development partners in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere.'
