Kuala Lumpur: US President Donald Trump will attend the ceremonial signing of a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia at an upcoming summit of Southeast Asian nations, the foreign minister of host Malaysia said Tuesday.
Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia erupted in July into the deadliest military clashes in decades, killing more than 40 people and forcing around 300,000 to flee their homes.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire — brokered in part by Trump — after five days of fighting, and have since repeatedly traded accusations of truce violations.
Trump “is looking forward to witness the Thailand-Cambodia peace deal,” Mohamad Hasan told reporters at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Mohamad said the US leader would visit Malaysia on October 26 to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Malaysian capital from October 26-28.
He said Malaysia and the United States would serve as facilitators to “see a more extensive ceasefire deal” between Thailand and Cambodia, which will require “both sides to remove all land mines and withdraw their military machinery from their borders.”
“We hope that both parties can fulfil these conditions and during the ASEAN summit a declaration can be signed.
“We can call it the Kuala Lumpur Declaration or the Kuala Lumpur Accord, we want to make sure that these two neighboring countries can come together to make peace and also implement their ceasefire,” Mohamad added.
Thai government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat told reporters Bangkok was aware the United States was giving the dispute priority.
“But what Cambodia has to do first, before we accept the US offer, are our four points that we have raised,” he said.
Thailand Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Thursday that he had received a letter from Trump, with the US leader saying he wanted to see the two neighbors resolve tensions.
Anutin also said Thailand was ready to negotiate if Cambodia withdrew heavy weapons from border areas, removed land mines, cracked down on Internet scammers and relocated its citizens from borderlands Thailand considers its own.
Cambodia has said its nationals have lived in the disputed border villages for decades.
Anutin’s remarks came a day after the Thai premier appeared to brush off a continued role for Trump — who has been chasing a Nobel Peace Prize — in any further negotiations between the two nations aimed at solving their border dispute.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has said he nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, crediting him with “innovative diplomacy” that ended the military clashes.
Trump to attend signing of Thailand-Cambodia ‘peace deal’
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Trump to attend signing of Thailand-Cambodia ‘peace deal’
- Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia erupted in July into the deadliest military clashes in decades, killing more than 40 people
- Cambodia has said its nationals have lived in the disputed border villages for decades
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
