Thailand will inform US President Donald Trump that it is ready to sign a peace agreement with Cambodia in Malaysia on four conditions, which must be accepted by Cambodia, said Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul today.
The pre-conditions set by Thailand are that Cambodia must withdraw all its troops and heavy weaponry from the border areas with Thailand, must remove all Cambodian settlers from Thai territory, must earnestly suppress scamming operations in Cambodia and must cooperate fully with Thailand in mine clearance along the shared border.
Anutin said that all four pre-conditions are necessary because the problems pose a serious security threat to Thailand and its people.
He said that he has already received a letter from Trump offering to preside over the signing of peace agreement, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur being held between October 26 and 28, and is ready to send his response.
Trump wants to preside over the signing of the peace deal between Thailand and Cambodia during the ASEAN Summit. The White House also made clear that Chinese officials should be excluded from ceremonial events at the Summit.
Regarding the controversial MOUs 43 and 44 with Cambodia, the prime minister said that the issue is being considered in parliament, adding the process may take more than four months.
People’s party MP Rangsiman Rome said that the border problem between Thailand and Cambodia has been swept under the rug for a long time. It is complex and cannot be resolved immediately by the intervention of a superpower.
He noted that the most important thing is that the Thai national interests must come first, because Thailand is not the lap dog of any superpower who can simply “order two people to stop fighting without considering the cause of the conflict (or asking) who is the thug? Who violated the sovereignty of the other country first? Who fired the first fatal shots?”
