Cambodia: Thailand launched airstrikes after ASEAN talks
Cambodia reported that Thailand carried out air strikes on its territory on Monday, just after Bangkok declared that both countries had agreed to hold talks this week to resolve deadly border clashes.
Renewed fighting this month shattered a previous truce and has killed at least 23 people in Thailand and 20 in Cambodia, while more than 900,000 have been displaced on both sides, officials said, News.Az reports, citing France24.
Thailand's Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow announced the planned bilateral parley after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Cambodia is also a member.
He told reporters that the discussion would be held Wednesday in Thailand's Chanthaburi, within the framework of an existing bilateral border committee.
But just hours after the regional crisis talks were held in Malaysia, Cambodia's defence ministry said the Thai military deployed fighter jets to bomb areas of Siem Reap and Preah Vihear provinces.
Siem Reap province is the home of Cambodia's famed Angkor temple complex, a UNESCO heritage site. Its top tourist attraction, Angkor Wat, sits just over an hour's drive from Srae Nouy commune, parts of which were bombarded according to Phnom Penh.
The Thai army said Cambodia fired dozens of rockets into Thailand on Monday, with Bangkok's air force responding with air strikes on two Cambodian military targets.
Despite the cross-border fire, Cambodia's interior ministry said it remains "optimistic that the Thai side will demonstrate sincerity" in implementing a ceasefire.
Thailand's Sihasak, however, cautioned that the upcoming meeting may not immediately produce a truce.
"Our position is a ceasefire does not come with an announcement, but must come from actions," he said.
His ministry said the two nations' militaries would "discuss implementation, related steps and verification of the ceasefire in detail".
Monday's meeting was convened by ASEAN chair Malaysia, which in late October hosted a summit where a truce declaration was signed under the auspices of US President Donald Trump.
Sihasak said that the October declaration was rushed.
"The United States wanted the declaration signed in time by the visit of President Trump," he said.
"Sometimes we really need to sit down and thrash things out so that things that we agree will really hold."
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