The United States has announced $45m in aid aimed at stabilising a fragile ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, as Washington moves to lock in a truce personally touted by US President Donald Trump as a diplomatic win.
Michael DeSombre, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said on Friday that $20m would go toward joint efforts to combat drug trafficking and cyber scams, a growing regional problem that has hit Cambodia particularly hard.
DeSombre made the announcement while meeting senior Thai and Cambodian officials in Bangkok and Phnom Penh on Friday and Saturday to discuss implementation of the peace deal, according to a senior US State Department official.
A further $15m will be allocated to border stabilisation efforts to support civilians displaced by the fighting, with another $10m earmarked for de-mining and the clearance of unexploded ordnance.
“The United States will continue to support the Cambodian and Thai governments as they implement the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords and pave the way for a return to peace, prosperity and stability for their people and the region,” DeSombre said in a statement.
He was referring to the agreement signed by Thailand and Cambodia in Trump’s presence during his October visit to Malaysia, when Kuala Lumpur was chairing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The latest ceasefire, agreed on December 27, ended nearly three weeks of fighting that killed at least 101 people and displaced more than half a million civilians on both sides of the border.
That truce followed the collapse of an earlier ceasefire brokered in July by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Border clashes flared again last month before regional pressure pushed the two sides back to the negotiating table.
Thailand briefly accused Cambodia of violating the December ceasefire, a claim it later walked back after the Thai military said Cambodian forces had contacted them to explain the incident was caused by accidental fire.
Cambodia, meanwhile, has continued to press Thailand to withdraw troops from disputed border areas that Phnom Penh claims as its own.
The conflict is rooted in competing interpretations of an 800-kilometre border drawn during French colonial rule, an area dotted with contested territory and centuries-old temple ruins claimed by both sides.
Trump has repeatedly cited the Thailand–Cambodia truce as evidence of his peacemaking credentials, listing it among several conflicts he says he has resolved while arguing he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
The aid announcement comes against a backdrop of sharply reduced US foreign assistance. Since returning to office, Trump has slashed aid programmes worldwide, including temporarily freezing long-running de-mining assistance to Cambodia, with the administration insisting future funding must serve narrowly defined US interests.
Cyber scams and financial fraud operations operating across Southeast Asia have increasingly targeted US citizens, a factor US officials have highlighted in justifying renewed engagement.
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