Thailand and Cambodia Sign New Ceasefire After Weeks of Border Fighting

Thailand and Cambodia signed a ceasefire agreement on Saturday to end weeks of armed fighting along their border over competing territorial claims, according to CBS News, The Associated Press (via NBC News) and Al Jazeera.

The deal took effect at noon local time. The joint statement says both sides agree to an immediate ceasefire, to “maintain current troop deployments without further movement” and, according to Al Jazeera, to cover all types of weapons and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. The AP text carried by NBC News adds that neither side may violate the other’s airspace for military purposes. Al Jazeera reported that both countries also pledged to avoid provocative actions and to stop spreading false information, and that ASEAN observers will monitor implementation.

The countries’ defense ministers, Cambodia’s Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Natthaphon Narkphanit, signed the agreement, according to Al Jazeera; CBS News and NBC News placed the ceremony at a border checkpoint in Thailand’s Chanthaburi province, following three days of lower-level military talks, CBS News reported.

Under the deal, Thailand will return 18 Cambodian soldiers it has held as prisoners since earlier clashes once the ceasefire has held for 72 hours, according to CBS News and Al Jazeera. CBS News described that as a key Cambodian demand.

Outlets gave different tolls for the fighting. CBS News reported that the border conflict, which reignited this month and shattered an earlier truce, had killed at least 47 people by official counts and displaced about one million. Al Jazeera reported that the 20 days of fighting killed more than 100 people and displaced more than half a million civilians across both countries. The paper cannot reconcile the figures, which may rest on different counting periods or sources.

The United States has been involved in the diplomacy. CBS News reported that a July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless the two countries agreed; Al Jazeera said that truce was brokered by the U.S., China and Malaysia after five days of fighting in July. Both outlets reported that it was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Kuala Lumpur attended by Trump and Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. According to Al Jazeera, the United States urged both countries on Saturday to implement those Kuala Lumpur accords, and the earlier truce broke down in early December.

International reaction was positive. Al Jazeera reported that the United Nations secretary-general, China, Japan and the European Union welcomed the agreement, and that a trilateral meeting with Thailand and China was scheduled in Yunnan for Sunday.

Many clauses in Saturday’s agreement resemble those in October’s document, including provisions on land mines and the Cambodian prisoners, which were open to different interpretations and were honored only in part, CBS News said. The fragility of the new arrangement was underscored within hours: according to CBS News, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry protested to Cambodia that a Thai soldier suffered a permanent disability after stepping on an anti-personnel land mine that Thailand charged had been laid by Cambodian forces.