Thailand and Cambodia signed an expanded ceasefire agreement on Sunday during a ceremony attended by US President Donald Trump, whose threats of economic pressure prodded the two nations to halt skirmishes along their disputed border earlier this year. Thailand will release Cambodian prisoners and Cambodia will begin withdrawing heavy artillery as part of the first phase of the deal. Regional observers will monitor the situation to ensure fighting doesn’t restart.
“We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” Trump said. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet called it a “historic day,” and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the agreement creates “the building blocks for a lasting peace.” The ceremony was Trump’s first event after arriving at the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), hosted in Kuala Lumpur.
The trip, which will continue with visits to Japan and South Korea and a potential meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, is an opportunity for Trump to burnish his reputation as an international dealmaker at a time when his tariffs have scrambled the international economy and he’s feuding with Democrats over a government shutdown back home. Trump touched down in the Malaysian capital shortly before 0200 GMT, where he performed his trademark campaign trail dance with local performers and waved an American flag in one hand and a Malaysian flag in the other.
The president signed economic agreements with Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, some of them aimed at increasing trade involving critical minerals. The US wants to rely less on China, which has limited exports of key components in technology manufacturing. “It’s very important that we cooperate as willing partners with each other to ensure that we can have smooth supply chains, secure supply chains, for the quality of life, for our people and security,” said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Trump also seemed eager to calm trade tensions with China, repeatedly expressing confidence about sitting down with Xi in South Korea at the end of his trip. “They want to make a deal and we want to make a deal,” he said. Trump reiterated his plan to visit China in the future and suggested that Xi could come to Washington or Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. Trump reengages with a key region of the world: The president attended this summit only once during his first term, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth seemed unfamiliar with ASEAN during his confirmation hearing in January.
But this year’s event was a chance for Trump to reengage with a collection of nations that have a combined USD 3.8 trillion economy and 680 million people. “The United States is with you 100 per cent, and we intend to be a strong partner and friend for many generations to come,” Trump said. He described his counterparts as “spectacular leaders” and said, “everything you touch turns to gold.”
The summit also allowed Trump to play global peacemaker with Thailand and Cambodia, which have competing territorial claims that result in periodic violence along their border. Some of the worst modern fighting between the two countries took place over five days in July, killing dozens and displacing hundreds of thousands of people, some of the worst modern fighting between the two countries.
Trump threatened, at the time, to withhold trade agreements unless the fighting stopped in a display of economic leverage credited with spurring negotiations. A shaky truce has persisted since then. “The fact that Trump was holding the tariff card was actually very, very significant,” said Ou Virak, president of Phnom Penh’s Future Forum think tank. “That’s probably the main reason, if not the only reason, but definitely the main reason why the two sides agreed immediately to the ceasefire.”
Now, he said, “there’s a ceremony for Trump to be in front of cameras” so he can be “seen as the champion that brings an end to wars and conflicts,” giving him “more ammunition for his bid for Nobel Peace Prize.” Trump has explicitly campaigned for the honour, continuously adding to a list of conflicts that he either helped resolve or claims to have ended.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim praised the agreement between Thailand and Cambodia during opening remarks at the summit, saying, “it reminds us that reconciliation is not concession, but an act of courage.” Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura described the deal on Saturday as a “joint declaration” that will show Thailand and Cambodia “are committed to renewing their relations.” “It’s not an end in itself,” Nikorndej said. “Work has just begun.”
