Thailand and Cambodia sign ceasefire agreement after weeks of intense fighting
Thailand and Cambodia have signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of armed combat along their border over competing claims to territory.
Thailand and Cambodia have signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of armed combat along their border over competing claims to territory.
It took effect at noon local time.
As well as an end to the fighting, the agreement also calls for no further military movements by either side, and no violations of either side's airspace for military purposes.
The ceasefire was holding, Thai defence ministry spokesperson Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri told Reuters - around two hours after it went into effect at noon (5am GMT).
Cambodia's Ministry of National Defence did not report any clashes after what it said had been a Thai airstrike early on Saturday before the ceasefire announcement.
The deal also calls for Thailand, after the ceasefire has held for 72 hours, to repatriate 18 Cambodian soldiers it has held as prisoners since earlier fighting in July.
Image: Pic: AKP via AP
Their release has been a major demand of the Cambodian side.
The agreement was signed by the two countries' defence ministers, Cambodia's Tea Seiha and Thailand's Nattaphon Narkphanit, at a checkpoint on their border after lower-level talks by military officials for three days as part of the already-established General Border Committee.
For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817km land border - a dispute that has occasionally exploded into skirmishes and fighting.
The fragility of the new agreement was underlined by Thailand's defence ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri.
He said after Saturday's signing that the 72-hour initial ceasefire is "not an act of trust nor unconditional acceptance but a time frame to tangibly prove whether Cambodia can truly cease the use of weapons, provocations and threats in the area".
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The original July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through after pressure from US President Donald Trump.
Mr Trump threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed.
It was formalised in more detail at a regional meeting in Malaysia in October that Mr Trump attended.