Thailand Halts Trump Peace Deal With Cambodia

Thailand has sent tanks and artillery to its border with Cambodia after a ceasefire deal between the two countries collapsed just two weeks after being signed.

The truce, which Donald Trump boasted of brokering, fell apart on Monday after four Thai soldiers were injured by landmines, with one losing a leg, in the disputed border region between the two nations.

Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand’s prime minister, announced the suspension of the agreement on Monday. He said that the “hostility towards our national security has not decreased as we thought it would”.

Gen Pana Klaewplodthuk, Thailand’s commander-in-chief, said “the hostile gesture still exists” and said his military “must suspend all agreements to preserve our right to defend ourselves against unfair attacks”.

Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia broke out in May over a long-standing border dispute. Nearly 50 people were killed in the conflict, which lasted several weeks, and hundreds of thousands of others were displaced.

Cambodia denied it was responsible for the injuries suffered by the Thai soldiers.

Officials suggested instead that the explosives were left over from conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s, when millions of landmines were laid by warring factions in the region, and when the US also carried out heavy bombing raids during the Vietnam War.

However, independent experts and Thai officials said there was evidence that Cambodian forces had laid new landmines more recently.

Major General Wintai Suvari, a Thai army spokesman, claimed that new PMN-2 mines, manufactured by Russia, were placed on the Thai side of the border after barbed wire was removed.

Independent landmine experts also told Reuters news agency that PMN-2s in images taken by the Thai military in July appeared to have been recently laid.

While Malaysia was the primary negotiator, Trump has repeatedly taken credit for brokering the ceasefire by threatening to end tariff negotiations with both countries.

The truce had already been agreed in late July, but the two leaders signed an official document on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in late October.

Trump said he flew to Malaysia specifically to witness the deal being signed.

While Cambodia heaped praise on Trump for his role, nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize, Thailand has been more reticent.

At a press conference shortly after the deal was signed, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Thailand’s foreign minister, refused to refer to the deal as the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords – the name given by Trump – instead calling it a “pathway to peace”.

Matthew Wheeler, a senior analyst for Southeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, said he was not surprised that the ceasefire had fallen apart.

“It was predictable that the agreement would break down because it was plainly concluded to placate President Trump on matters unrelated to the conflict, namely, trade and Trump’s desire to be perceived as a peacemaker,” he said.

Prisoner release in doubt

With the deal now suspended, subsequent parts of the agreement, including the planned release of 18 Cambodian prisoners of war, are now also up in the air.

Gen Nattaphon Narkphanit, Thailand’s defence minister, said on Monday that the repatriation, which was supposed to come after Thailand withdrew heavy weapons from the border, would be “put on hold”.

Meanwhile, Anutin said he would travel to Sisaket, a province bordering Cambodia, to meet the injured soldiers.

Malaysia said on Tuesday that it remained committed to ensuring peace between the two countries following the clashes over the summer, which included rockets being fired at Thailand from Cambodia in July.

Gen Mohd Nizam Jaffar, the chief of defence forces in Malaysia, said that if the timelines in the agreement were disrupted, “the situation may regress to what it was before”, but added that his country remained hopeful that the “peace process will continue”.