Fighting between Thai and Cambodian troops continued on Saturday morning after U.S. President Donald Trump said the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Chanvirakul said he had told the U.S. president that a ceasefire would only be possible after Cambodia withdrew all its troops and cleared landmines.
“Thailand will continue military action until there is no longer any harm or threat to our land and people,” he said on social media.
The bombardment continued throughout the night as Thai forces worked to capture several vantage points along the border. Renewed fighting has killed at least 21 people and forced the evacuation of 700,000 people on both sides.
President Trump claimed earlier this week that he could stop fighting between Thai and Cambodian troops that broke out on Monday simply by picking up the phone.
He wrote on social media after speaking with the two prime ministers on Friday night that the two countries had agreed to “cease shooting starting this evening” and to return to the agreement signed before the US president last October.
“Both countries are ready for peace,” he wrote.
But Anutin told Trump that Thailand must show that it is not the aggressor and that Cambodia has withdrawn its troops and cleared land mines from its border before a cease-fire is possible. “They have to show us first,” he said.
There was no mention of trying to break up the two countries using tariffs as leverage like last July.
Thailand warned the United States not to link the dispute to trade.
On Saturday, Cambodia reported receiving additional airstrikes from Thailand.
Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defense said through
“The bombing of Thai military aircraft has not yet stopped,” he said.
The Thai military also confirmed that fighting is continuing.
The long-standing border dispute intensified on July 24 when Cambodia fired rockets at Thailand and Thailand responded with airstrikes.
Both countries have accused each other of masterminding the attack.
After days of intense fighting that left dozens dead, the neighboring Southeast Asian countries agreed to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” brokered by President Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. This was made official at a ceremony presided over by the US President in Malaysia last October.
However, both sides continued to exchange accusations of ceasefire violations, and Thailand released evidence that the Cambodian military had laid landmines, which resulted in seven Thai soldiers losing limbs. Cambodia says the mines were left over from a civil war in the 1980s.
Tensions have continued to rise since then.
Thailand this week launched airstrikes inside Cambodia after two of its soldiers were wounded in fighting that broke out last Sunday. Cambodia responded with rocket artillery. The fighting took place in six provinces in northeastern Thailand and six provinces in northwestern and northwestern Cambodia.
The two countries have been fighting over their 800km land border for more than 100 years. The border was drawn by a French cartographer in 1907, when France was still colonizing Cambodia.
