Cambodia, Thailand agree to ceasefire, neutral monitors after clashes

Cambodia and Thailand agreed to maintain a ceasefire and allow neutral monitors, as the US cited a “high level of distrust” between the Southeast Asian neighbors after their deadliest border clashes in decades.

A meeting of senior security officials from the two nations held in Kuala Lumpur approved a set of measures to strictly enforce the truce and ease border tensions, including ceasefire monitoring by an interim team of Asean defense attaches stationed in Bangkok and Phnom Penh. The teams would be led by Malaysian attaches.

The so-called General Border Committee meeting also agreed not to move or reinforce troops and weapons along their roughly 800-kilometer (500-mile) disputed border, Cambodian and Thai officials said at separate briefings on Thursday. Representatives of Malaysia, China and the US attended the border talks as observers.

The latest measures to de-escalate tensions may help hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by five days of clashes on either side of the border to return home.

Even after the July 29 ceasefire, both countries have continued to station troops and weaponry along the frontier after the clashes left more than 40 dead and scores more injured