Thai-Cambodian PMs hold talks in Kuala Lumpur after Trump-brokered peace agreement

Kuala Lumpur, Oct 28 (EFE).- The governments of Thailand and Cambodia held a bilateral meeting on Tuesday to promote the peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump and signed on Sunday during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, that the peace agreement sealed on Sunday laid the foundation for both countries to move forward, during a meeting on the sidelines of the forum, which concludes in the Malaysian capital on Tuesday.

The talks on Tuesday focused on the need for both countries to work together to quickly implement the agreement, the Thai prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Among the main points of the agreement is the withdrawal of heavy weapons from border areas, a process that has already begun, the statement added.

Trump, who was present at the signing, described the agreement between the Southeast Asian nations as «historic.»

Thailand and Cambodia have a decades-long border dispute, and their militaries clashed for five days in July at various points along their shared border.

With 50 deaths, the conflict ended with a ceasefire brokered by Trump, who threatened Bangkok and Phnom Penh with freezing trade negotiations with both sides if the dispute continued.

However, the true scope of the agreement, which does not appear to address the causes of the conflict, is unknown.

It includes a cessation of hostilities, a commitment by both sides to allow regional observers in the conflict zone, and the release of 18 Cambodian prisoners of war, among other issues.

Bangkok and Phnom Penh share an approximately 820 kilometer-long (509 miles) border, which was mapped by France in 1907, when Cambodia was its colony, and they have a long-standing dispute over the sovereignty of certain territories. EFE

kl-nc/pd