Reuters
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Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Saturday to end weeks of violent border clashes. The clashes were the worst fighting between the Southeast Asian nations in years, and included fighter jet sorties, rocket fire, and barrages of artillery fire.
“Both sides agree to maintain current troop deployments without further movements,” the defense ministers of both countries said in a joint statement regarding the ceasefire, which will take effect at noon local time (midnight ET).
“Any reinforcements would increase tensions and negatively impact long-term efforts to resolve the situation,” said a statement on social media from the Cambodian Ministry of Defense.
The agreement, signed by Thai Defense Minister Nataporn Narukpanit and Cambodian Defense Minister Tee Seiha, ended 20 days of fighting that left at least 101 people dead on both sides and more than 500,000 displaced.
Clashes flared up in early December after a ceasefire that US President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had helped broker a previous cessation of fighting broke down.
For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have disputed sovereignty over various unbounded points along their 817-kilometer (508-mile) land border, a dispute that has occasionally escalated into skirmishes and fighting.
Nataphon said the ceasefire would be monitored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional observers and direct coordination between the two countries.
“At the same time, there will be direct communication between the defense ministers and the military commanders of both sides at the policy level,” he told reporters.
Smoldering tensions between the two countries came to a head in July, when the neighbors clashed for five days in parts of their frontiers, leaving at least 48 people dead and 300,000 displaced before President Trump intervened to create a ceasefire.
The ceasefire broke down in early December, with both sides blaming each other for the moves that led to the clashes.
Since the conflict resumed, neither Anwar (who currently chairs ASEAN) nor Trump have succeeded in clinching another ceasefire, as fighting has spread from forested areas near Laos to coastal areas of the Gulf of Thailand.
The new talks followed a special meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, followed by three days of talks between the warring sides at border crossings, and the two defense ministers met on Saturday.
In a joint statement, the ministers agreed to the return of those evacuated from affected border areas, while also stressing that neither side would use any force against civilians.
According to the agreement, Thailand will also return 18 Cambodian soldiers detained since the July clashes if the ceasefire holds for a full 72 hours.
