Thailand and Cambodia showed no sign yesterday of narrowing their differences on how to end a deadly border rift, with Bangkok reporting a new skirmish just hours after a UN appeal for a lasting ceasefire.
Thailand said one of its soldiers was wounded in the latest flare-up at the frontier early yesterday, but described the incident as relatively minor. The two armies accused each other of using hand grenades.
Bangkok urged its neighbor to return to the table for bilateral talks to settle the row centered on a 900-year-old temple, which erupted into four days of armed clashes earlier this month.
“When the international community thinks the problem should be solved through negotiation, Cambodia has no reason to refuse. They should return to the talks,” Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.
However, Phnom Penh rejected the call, insisting on the need for third-party mediation.
“Bilateral negotiations do not work,” said Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong, who described a UN Security Council meeting on the matter as “a success” for his country.
“Cambodia’s stance is to resolve the dispute peacefully,” he said, but “all negotiations must always have the participation of a third party.”
“What Cambodia wants is a permanent ceasefire. This is the most important issue,” he added.
In New York, UN Security Council members called for “maximum restraint” in the standoff, council president Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil said after a closed-door meeting attended by the foreign ministers of the two countries as well as Indonesia, which has tried to mediate in the dispute.
“Members of the Security Council urge the parties to establish a permanent ceasefire and to implement it fully,” she said.
However, just hours later the two countries’ armies were trading accusations again about the latest incident.
“Cambodia threw hand grenades into Thailand at around 5am this morning,” Thai army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said.
A Cambodian military commander near the border, who did not wish to be named denied the charge, saying Thai troops regularly threw grenades, but Cambodian forces did not retaliate.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese