TRUMP WEIGHS IN
Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Monday announced the parley with Cambodia after a crisis meeting in Kuala Lumpur with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Cambodia is also a member.
But in a letter to his Thai counterpart Nattaphon Narkphanit, Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Seiha requested the meeting be held in Kuala Lumpur for security reasons.
“Due to the ongoing fighting along the border, this meeting should be held in a safe and neutral venue,” Tea Seiha wrote in the letter, which AFP obtained on Tuesday.
Thailand’s defence minister told journalists the last border committee meeting was held in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province, so it was Thailand’s turn to host, adding that there was nothing to fear as Thais could separate military and diplomatic matters.
But Nattaphon also said Thai forces would keep fighting as long as Cambodia did, as combat that has stretched along nearly the entirety of the border so far has only calmed in parts of two provinces.
The Cambodian defence ministry said Thai forces shelled the Cambodian border city of Poipet and bombed parts of the border province of Preah Vihear on Tuesday.
In October, US President Donald Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed in Kuala Lumpur to prolong their truce.
But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month.
Trump on Monday referred again to the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand as one of the eight wars he had “solved” around the world.
“Thailand is starting to shape up. You know, they started with Cambodia, they started up again,” he told journalists in Florida.
“But I think … we have that in pretty good shape, to have that stopped.”
Source: CNA
