Thailand, Cambodia agree to ASEAN observer team as part of de-escalation efforts

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to the deployment of an ASEAN observer team as efforts to de-escalate their conflict continue, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday.

Malaysia’s engagement would continue across multiple channels, including communications between leaders, foreign ministers and the respective chiefs of armed forces, and a meeting between ASEAN foreign ministers scheduled for Dec. 22 in Kuala Lumpur, Anwar said, according to a Bernama report.

He said that Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to attend the meeting on Dec. 22, a Malaysia- and ASEAN-initiated effort aimed at easing tensions and preventing further escalation along the Thailand-Cambodia border.


Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told journalists that there was no international pressure for a ceasefire, the Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.

“We are appealing to them to immediately stop these frontline offensives and, if possible, immediate ceasefire,” he said.

“No one is pressuring us. Who is pressuring whom? I don’t know,” he said, declining to answer a question on whether Trump was attempting to use the threat of tariffs to encourage Bangkok to end the fighting.

Meanwhile, Thai authorities were trying to find a way to repatriate up to 6,000 citizens who had been stranded by Cambodia’s closure of a checkpoint in the city of Poipet.

Hun Sen, Cambodia’s influential former leader and current Senate president, said the closure aimed to protect civilians from what he claimed was indiscriminate firing by Thai forces in the area.

Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesperson for the Thai Ministry of Defence, said there had been “continuous fighting across the border” in eight border provinces, while Cambodia’s Ministry of Defence pledged its troops would “continue to stand strong, brave and steadfast in their fight against the aggressor”.