Putrajaya, Malaysia (Reuters)-The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand agreed with a ceasefire on Monday, with effect from midnight, in an attempt to end the deadlier conflict in more than a decade after five days of fierce fighting.
In the midst of an international effort to end the conflict, Thai and Cambodian leaders had conversations in Malaysia, with prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, current president of the Asean regional bloc, where both sides agreed to interrupt hostilities and resume direct communications.
Anwar said, when he opened a press conference alongside the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia that there will be “an immediate and unconditional ceasefire with effect from today’s midnight. This is definitive.”
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Southeast Asian neighbors are mutually accused of starting fighting last week before increasing them with heavy artillery bombings and Thai air strikes along their 817 km land border.
Anwar proposed talks to ceasefire shortly after a long border dispute became a conflict on Thursday, and China and the United States also offered to help with negotiations.
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United States President Donald Trump called both weekend leaders asking them to solve their differences, warning that he would not close business agreements with them unless they ended up with the fight.
The tension between Thailand and Cambodia has intensified since the death of a Cambodian soldier during a brief conflict in late May.
Both sides reinforced the border troops amid a large diplomatic crisis that led the Thailand coalition government on the edge of the collapse.
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“We hope that the solutions that Prime Minister Anwar has just announced to establish a condition to advance in our bilateral discussions in order to return to the normality of the relationship and the basis for the future reduction of the climbing of the forces,” said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.
Thailand’s interim prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who had previously expressed doubts about Cambodia’s sincerity before negotiations in Malaysia, said Thailand agreed with ceasefire that “will be successfully and in good faith on both sides.”
