Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to a number of measures to de-escalate the situation along their disputed border, their most significant efforts to normalize relations since the fierce five-day conflict in late July.
During a meeting of the bilateral General Border Committee (GBC) in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province yesterday, the two sides committed to five major initiatives to reduce tensions along the border.
The most important of these were mutual agreements to withdraw heavy weapons and military equipment from forward positions along the border, and to make a coordinated effort to clear landmines from disputed areas.
In a statement, the Cambodian Defense Ministry said that “both sides agreed on the urgent need to de-escalate tensions through removal of heavy and destructive weapons back to their respective normal military installations.” Acting Thai Defense Minister Gen. Nattaphol Narkphanit, who co-chaired the meeting with his Cambodian counterpart Tea Seiha, later told the press that the bilateral Joint Boundary Commission and Regional Border Committee would discuss an action plan for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry within three weeks.
The two sides have also agreed to form a coordination committee for mine removal, which will develop a clearance plan and identify pilot areas to begin clearance within the month. Landmine explosions have been a contentious aspect of the border crisis. Fourteen Thai soldiers have been seriously injured by landmines in recent months, which the Royal Thai Army has accused Cambodia of planting in violation of anti-landmine agreements. Cambodia has denied the accusation, claiming that the incidents involved mines planted during the Cambodian civil war in the 1980s and 1990s.
At yesterday’s meeting, officials from both sides also agreed to tackle the growing problem of online scamming operations. As Khaosod English reported, Thai officials have handed over the locations of more than 60 scam centers operating on Cambodian soil, and police officials from both nations will meet in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province on September 16 to plan raids.
Finally, the two sides have also agreed gradually to reopen key trade checkpoints that were closed as tensions intensified in June and July, and to address border tensions in Ban Nong Chan village. The village, which sits on the border between Sa Kaeo province and Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province, has been the center of heated stand-offs between Thai soldiers and Cambodian villagers claiming that their land has been seized by the Thai government. If successful, the dispute resolution model will then “be applied in other areas with similar issues,” Nattaphol told the media.
“Thailand and Cambodia cannot run away from each other,” he added. “We must solve problems peacefully to bring peace back to the border area.”
In a statement, Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said that the Thai and Cambodian governments are keen to “resolve issues peacefully and prevent clashes,” and that both sides “stressed that strengthening communication at all levels is essential to build mutual trust and promote good neighborliness.”
The agreement represents the most serious attempt thus far to end the deadly border conflict, which has killed at least 43 people and displaced more than 300,000 on both sides of the border. Whether or not these efforts succeed remains to be seen, but both sides now have a clear reason to want an end to the border conflict. Political figures in Cambodia and Thailand have both benefited from the conflict, and the subsequent upsurge in nationalist sentiment, but the conflict is also exacting an economic price.
Speaking to the press yesterday, Natthapol said that unnamed “third countries” were pressing both sides to reopen border crossings to cargo shipments, arguing that the closures had severed supply chains and created considerable economic disruption. According to Thai media reports, Japanese investors in Thailand requested that the Thai cabinet expedite the reopening of border checkpoints.
The exodus of Cambodian migrant workers from Thailand since the border clash has created problems in both nations. As Channel News Asia reported on September 5, the mass flight – more than 1 million Cambodian migrant workers may have returned home since the conflict – has left both nations with “intractable labor problems.”
“Thailand’s shortage is Cambodia’s glut,” the news outlet reported. “Multiple Thai sectors are now missing essential workers while Cambodians contend with an economy that will struggle to provide them employment.”
Another important variable is the recent change of government in Thailand, where Anutin Charnvirakul of the conservative Bhumjaithai party was elected by parliament on September 5, a week after the court-ordered removal of the Pheu Thai party’s Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
After being sworn in, Anutin announced his intention to bring the border tensions to an end. “This government will take peaceful measures to resolve the ongoing Thai-Cambodian dispute with a firm commitment to mitigating any further Thai casualties,” Anutin said in a speech on September 7, as per Reuters. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet subsequently wrote to Anutin, congratulating him on his election as prime minister and pledging to work with him to re-normalize bilateral relations, rebuild mutual trust, and transform the Thai-Cambodian border “into one of peace, cooperation, development, and shared prosperity.”
One can’t read too much into this diplomatic boilerplate. At the same time, the falling-out between the Shinawatras and Cambodia’s Hun family, once widely considered allies, has been a central factor in the slide toward conflict. In mid-June, Cambodia’s leak of a recorded phone call between Paetongtarn and Manet’s influential father, Hun Sen, inflamed the border conflict and set off political reverberations in Thailand that resulted in her removal from office. As such, the advent of a new government in Thailand – a government whose interests are much more closely aligned with those of the Royal Thai Army – offers a good opportunity for a fresh start.