Thailand-Cambodia conflict: Fourth day of fighting despite US ceasefire proposal
The two Southeast Asian kingdoms are engaged in the deadliest episode in nearly fifteen years of a long-running territorial dispute. Exchanges of gunfire, bombings, and airstrikes have left at least 33 people dead and displaced approximately 200,000 people.
Both sides, joined Saturday by US President Donald Trump, said they wanted to begin talks, but early Sunday morning, fighting resumed, and each capital accused the other of breaking its promises. A spokeswoman for the Cambodian Defense Ministry, Maly Socheata, said that Thailand had attacked two disputed temples in the northwest at 4:50 a.m., the scene of the first clashes on Thursday morning. Bangkok committed "deliberate and coordinated acts of aggression," she said in a statement, denouncing the Thai military's "lies and false pretenses" to justify the "illegal invasion" of Khmer territory.
The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, reported "heavy artillery fire" by the Cambodian army targeting "civilian homes" in Surin province at around 4:30 a.m. "Any cessation of hostilities is impossible as long as Cambodia demonstrates a flagrant lack of good faith and continues to repeatedly violate the fundamental principles of human rights and humanitarian law," Thai diplomacy said.
In recent days, the conflict has spread across multiple fronts, sometimes hundreds of kilometers apart, from Thailand's popular tourist province of Trat on the Gulf of Thailand to an area nicknamed the "Emerald Triangle" for its proximity to Laos.
US President Donald Trump announced Saturday, after speaking with their leaders, that the two countries were ready to meet to reach a ceasefire. Donald Trump hailed the two "very good conversations" and expressed hope that the two neighbors "will get along for many more years," in a message on his Truth Social network.
Bangkok said it "agreed in principle to implement a ceasefire," while waiting to see if Phnom Penh's intention was "sincere." Khmer Prime Minister Hun Manet welcomed the "good news for the soldiers and people of both countries" and instructed his foreign minister, Prak Sokhonn, to coordinate with his American counterpart Marco Rubio to "end" the conflict. Prior to this, an attempt at mediation under the aegis of Malaysia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which both kingdoms are members, had not been followed by any results.
Thailand and Cambodia are in deep discussions with the White House over the prohibitive tariffs that are set to hit the two export-dependent economies on August 1. Donald Trump has said it is "inappropriate" to return to the trade negotiations table until the fighting "has stopped." The United Nations also urged the two neighbors on Saturday to conclude a ceasefire "immediately."
Diplomatic relations between the two neighbors, bound by rich cultural and economic ties, are at their lowest in decades. The current episode has left 20 people dead on the Thai side, including seven soldiers, while Cambodia has reported a death toll of 13, including five soldiers. More than 138,000 Thais have evacuated the high-risk areas, according to Bangkok, and more than 80,000 Cambodians on their side of the border, according to Phnom Penh.
