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28-10-2025
KUALA LUMPUR: US President Donald Trump has presided over a “peace deal” between Thailand and Cambodia, who have a long-standing border dispute that he calls “historic.”
Trade pressure from Trump led to a ceasefire in late July, ending five days of clashes that killed over two dozen people.
The US president has made clear he will use US trade deals as a key way to pressure countries to make peace, our reporter writes from the summit.
While in Malaysia, Trump will also attend a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations or Asean.
He is on a one-week high stakes trip to Asia that also includes stops in Japan for a meeting with the key US ally’s new conservative leader, and South Korea to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) leaders’ summit.
The highlight of the trip will be a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of Apec in Gyeongju.
Thai foreign minister calls agreement ‘pathway to peace’.
At the Thailand foreign minister’s press conference, I asked what Thailand was calling the agreement they just signed, given that President Trump has called it the “Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords”.
Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow insisted that the agreement still bears the name the Thais announced yesterday, which was a “joint declaration” of the outcomes of a Thai-Cambodia meeting.
When I pressed him again, asking if we could call it a peace deal, he then said “I would call it a pathway to peace”.
In answer to earlier questions about the US involvement, the foreign minister said they and the Malaysians “facilitated”, but in the end the discussions were only between Thailand and Cambodia.
Trump makes it clear that for him, business trumps war
When Thailand and Cambodia ended hostilities back in July, that ceasefire came shortly after Trump warned that their war would endanger their respective trade deals and tariff negotiations with the US.
With today’s signing coupled with Trump’s announcement of a US trade deal with Cambodia and a minerals agreement with Thailand, he has made it very clear that his administration will be using US trade deals as a key way to diplomatically pressure countries to make peace.
“We do transactions, lots of them, with both nations as long as they live in peace,” Trump said “and I really feel that when we make deals, we see two countries that we do a lot of business with… we have to use that business to make sure they don’t get into wars.”
Following the joint Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire agreement, trade agreements between the US and Thailand and Cambodia respectively have now been handed out to sign.
Trump could be heard saying that the agreements were “a great deal for both countries” as he signed them.
Just before the ceasefire deal was signed, the Cambodian PM Hun Manet thanked US President Donald Trump for his “decisive lead” and “tireless efforts” to make the peace accords a reality.
“No matter how difficult and complex a dispute may be, they must be resolved by peaceful means,” he said.
Manet also thanked the Malaysian PM for his assistance in the agreement, and said he looked forward to continued support and contribution from the international community in the joint declaration. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
