Thailand-Cambodia border meeting in doubt over venue row

Thailand on Tuesday rejected a request by Cambodia to hold bilateral talks in a neutral country, leaving a planned meeting to negotiate an end to deadly border clashes in doubt.

The nations' long-standing border conflict reignited this month, shattering an earlier truce, killing more than 40 people and displacing over 900,000 on both sides, officials said.

The clashing neighbours on Monday agreed to negotiate truce terms this week, but Cambodia asked Thailand to hold the talks in a neutral venue, Malaysia's capital.

Thailand's defence ministry, however, said Tuesday that the bilateral border committee meeting would go ahead in Thailand's Chanthaburi province from Wednesday as planned.

"We guarantee Chanthaburi is safe. This province is the original plan for hosting the GBC (General Border Committee) even before the fighting started," Thai defence ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri told reporters.

Surasant said officials from the border committee would meet from Wednesday to Saturday, adding that whether the meeting happened or not depended on Cambodia. 

A Cambodian government spokesman told AFP he had no updated information on the meeting venue.

The conflict stems from a territorial dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border and a smattering of ancient temple ruins situated on the frontier.

Each side has blamed the other for instigating the fresh fighting since December 7 and traded accusations of attacks on civilians, after five days of clashes in July killed dozens.

The United States, China and Malaysia brokered a truce to end that round of fighting, but the ceasefire was short-lived.

- Trump weighs in -

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Monday announced the parley with Cambodia after a crisis meeting in Kuala Lumpur with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Cambodia is also a member.

More from this section

'Call of Duty' co-creator Vince Zampella killed in car crash

Gang members given hundreds-years-long sentences in El Salvador

Australia falls silent, lights candles for Bondi Beach shooting victims

But in a letter to his Thai counterpart Nattaphon Narkphanit, Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Seiha requested the meeting be held in Kuala Lumpur for security reasons.

"Due to the ongoing fighting along the border, this meeting should be held in a safe and neutral venue," Tea Seiha wrote in the letter, which AFP obtained on Tuesday. 

Thailand's defence minister told journalists the last border committee meeting was held in Cambodia's Koh Kong province, so it was Thailand's turn to host, adding that there was nothing to fear as Thais could separate military and diplomatic matters.

But Nattaphon also said Thai forces would keep fighting as long as Cambodia did, as combat that has stretched along nearly the entirety of the border so far has only calmed in parts of two provinces.

The Cambodian defence ministry said Thai forces shelled the Cambodian border city of Poipet and bombed parts of the border province of Preah Vihear on Tuesday.

In October, US President Donald Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed in Kuala Lumpur to prolong their truce.

But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month.

Trump on Monday referred again to the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand as one of the eight wars he had "solved" around the world.

"Thailand is starting to shape up. You know, they started with Cambodia, they started up again," he told journalists in Florida.

"But I think... we have that in pretty good shape, to have that stopped."

suy-tp/sco/rsc