Thailand-Cambodia border fighting breaks out again

Trump made a special visit to the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur in September to preside over new Thailand-Cambodia peace agreements with Ibrahim, which he heralded as historic. He claimed that the conflict was one of eight problems he “solved” as president.

But the agreement was fragile from the beginning; Thailand was signaling that this was a starting point towards peace rather than an end to hostilities.

Just two weeks later, a new conflict broke out at the border, killing a civilian, Phnom Penh said. Thailand had previously accused Cambodia of planting mines that injured many soldiers.

Recent clashes have led to renewed evacuations of exhausted civilians on both sides of the border.

Cambodia wants to take border disputes, which have their roots in colonial map making, to the International Court of Justice, where it has previously been successful. Thailand wants to resolve the issue bilaterally.

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Nationalist sentiment in both countries makes it politically difficult for either leader to appear to give up sovereign territory. Critics say Hun Sen and Hun Manet’s regime, which does not tolerate dissent or dissent, is using the conflict to bolster its own party’s power.

Meanwhile, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has promised elections in the new year and is currently facing backlash over his administration’s handling of the flood crisis in the southern part of the country.

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