Thai and Cambodia border calm ahead of military commanders meeting
BANGKOK (Reuters) -The Thailand-Cambodia border, where fighting has raged since last week, is now calm following a ceasefire deal and military commanders from both sides are set to meet for talks on Tuesday, acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.
Phumtham and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, met in Malaysia on Monday and agreed to halt their deadliest conflict in more than a decade following five days of intense fighting that displaced over 300,000 people and killed at least 38 people, mostly civilians.
The Thai army said in a statement there had been attacks by Cambodian troops in at least five locations early on Tuesday, violating the ceasefire that had come into effect from midnight, and Thailand's military had retaliated proportionately.
Phumtham played down the clashes, and said he had spoken with Cambodia's defence minister ahead of the talks between military commanders, which are scheduled to be held at 10 a.m. local time (0300 GMT).
"There is no escalation," Phumtham told reporters. "Right now things are calm."
Maly Socheata, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Defence Ministry, said in a briefing on Tuesday that there had been no continued fighting along the border.
Monday's peace talks came after a sustained push by Malaysian Premier Anwar Ibrahim and U.S. President Donald Trump, with the latter warning Thai and Cambodian leaders that trade negotiations would not progress if fighting continued.
Thailand and Cambodia face a tariff of 36% on their goods in the U.S., their biggest export market, unless a reduction can be negotiated. After the ceasefire deal was reached, Trump said he had spoken to both leaders and had instructed his trade team to restart tariff talks.
The Southeast Asian neighbours have wrangled for decades over their disputed frontier and have been on a conflict footing since the killing of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish late in May, which led to a troop buildup on both sides and a full-blown diplomatic crisis.
(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by John Mair)
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