Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to withdraw their troops to previously agreed lines along their disputed border in a bid to reduce tensions, the two nations’ governments said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters, Thai Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said that the two sides would pull back to positions agreed last year, and expressed hope that the current border dispute, which resulted in an armed clash on May 28, could be resolved through bilateral talks.
According to a report in the Bangkok Post, which cited unnamed sources, Thai and Cambodian soldiers have since moved to their “previous positions,” and “will have their representatives meet in the area on a weekly basis.” In a statement, Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said that both sides wished to ease tensions following the clash, Reuters reported.
The May 28 clash, which occurred in an undemarcated area close to the tri-border junction between Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos, resulted in the death of one Cambodian soldier. Trading blame for the outbreak of gunfire, the two nations reinforced their military presence along their 800-kilometer shared border amid nationalist domestic political pressure.
The agreement to pull back took place the day after Thailand cut operating hours at 10 border crossings with Cambodia, citing a “threat to Thailand’s sovereignty and security.” It also reduced Cambodian citizens entering Thailand to only seven days in the country, a move that Cambodia reciprocated yesterday.
Cambodia and Thailand have a long history of disputes along their shared land border, which was set by a treaty signed between Siam and French Indo-China in 1907, but has never been fully demarcated. In 2008, the two nations skirmished over Preah Vihear temple, an eleventh-century Angkorian ruin perched on the border between Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Sisaket province, after UNESCO placed the temple on its World Heritage List. After several years of border tensions and sporadic military clashes, Cambodia took the case to the ICJ, which had awarded the temple in Cambodia in 1962. In 2013, it affirmed Cambodia’s sovereignty over the area, although the Thai government has never accepted the ICJ’s jurisdiction.
The latest disputes have been building since early this year, when a video of Cambodian troops and family members singing a patriotic song in front of Ta Moan Thom temple was posted on social media. There have also been separate tensions this year over the two nations’ undemarcated maritime boundary, which Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet and his Thai counterpart, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, had proposed to resolve.
After taking an initially conciliatory position, Paetongtarn’s government came under pressure from political opponents and nationalist pressure groups, who accused it of weakness in defending Thai interests. In this respect, many critics have focused on the close relationship between Hun Sen and Thaksin Shinawatra, the fathers of the current prime ministers, which some claim has “forced the Thai government to act meekly,” in the words of Ken Lohatepanont. Cambodia’s government is under less direct political pressure, given that it has eliminated most effective forms of political opposition over the past decade, but it still cannot afford to look weak on the border issue.
As things stand, Cambodia and Thailand remain at odds over how the issue should be resolved. Phnom Penh has announced its intention to take the border disputes to the ICJ, with or without Thailand’s support. Hun Manet has announced that his government plans to ask The Hague-based court to rule on the disputed territories Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch, and Ta Krabei temples, Angkorian ruins that have been the subject of recent tensions, as well as the area where the May 28 clash took place.
On June 6, Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn repeated Phnom Penh’s contention that “a decision rendered by the ICJ, grounded in international law, would offer a fair, impartial, and durable resolution.”
In the letter, which he shared with reporters yesterday, Sokhonn wrote, “Given the complexity, historical nature, and sensitivity of these disputes, it is increasingly evident that bilateral dialogue alone may no longer suffice to bring about a comprehensive and lasting solution.”
However, Thailand has said that it does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and proposes that the matter be settled through bilateral negotiations via the two nations’ Joint Boundary Committee, which will next meet on June 14. Cambodia has previously announced that it will not engage in negotiations over the four areas that it plans to submit to the ICJ’s jurisdiction, setting the scene for further bilateral frictions and possibly renewed military movements along the border.