A ceasefire brokered over Christmas between Cambodia and Thailand appeared to be holding since it came into force midday December 27 as talks aimed at cementing the truce were held in China and the international community praised both sides for ending hostilities.

The 16-point peace-plan offered more detail in protecting civilians, troop deployments, heavy weapons withdrawal, demining, and monitoring on both sides of the disputed 817-km border, compared to the two previous ceasefires struck on July 28 and October 26.

The earlier ceasefires failed to end the conflict that can be traced back to February when Thailand launched a cross-border crackdown on organized crime and scam compounds, which in Cambodia erupted into an undeclared war along overlapping claims across their shared frontier.

The December 27 Joint Statement

The Joint Statement of the 3rd Special Cambodia-Thailand General Border Committee Meeting was struck at the Prum-Ban Pak Kard border crossing between Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha and his Thai counterpart Nattaphon Narkphanit.

It promises to adhere to the “spirit of the Kuala Lumpur Joint Declaration” – the eight-point truce struck on October 26 and brokered by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as chair of ASEAN and overseen by U.S. President Donald........

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