Sawt Falasteen - Cambodia asks Thailand to move border talks to Malaysia

Bangkok's defence chief on Tuesday sought to assuage any fears on the Cambodian side about the meeting taking place in Thailand, and the Thai foreign ministry said the venue was still being discussed.

The nations' long-standing border conflict reignited this month, shattering an earlier truce, killing more than 40 people and displacing over 900,000 on both sides, officials said.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Monday announced a parley with Cambodia after a meeting in the Malaysian capital with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Cambodia is also a member.

Sihasak told reporters the discussion would be held Wednesday in Thailand's Chanthaburi within the framework of an existing bilateral border committee.

But in a letter dated Monday to his Thai counterpart Nattaphon Narkphanit, Cambodian defence minister Tea Seiha requested the meeting be held in Kuala Lumpur.

"For a security reason due to the ongoing fighting along the border, this meeting should be held in a safe and neutral venue," Tea Seiha wrote in the letter, which AFP obtained on Tuesday and confirmed with the ministry.

Malaysia, the chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, had agreed to host the talks in its capital, he added.

- 'It is safe' -

Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura told reporters in Bangkok that the meeting venue was "being discussed right now".

"The talks will last over two days, with technical groups first," he said Tuesday.

Thai defence minister Nattaphon Narkphanit suggested the meeting was set to go ahead on Wednesday in Thailand, but also sought to allay any concerns from his Cambodian counterpart.

"The meeting will be held in Chanthaburi... where there's barely any fighting. It is safe," Nattaphon told reporters before a cabinet meeting.

He said the last meeting of the joint General Border Committee was held in Cambodia's Koh Kong province, so it was Thailand's turn to host, adding that there was nothing to fear as Thais could separate military and diplomatic matters.

"I would like to tell Cambodia to trust us on safety," Nattaphon said, adding it would be held near the border with Cambodia.

But the defence minister also said Thai forces would keep fighting as long as Cambodia did, and combat that stretches along nearly the entirety of the border has so far only calmed in parts of two provinces.

Cambodia said Thailand launched air strikes on its territory on Monday, shortly after Bangkok announced the two nations had agreed to hold the bilateral talks.

Cambodian defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata told reporters that combat was ongoing Tuesday morning.

The ministry said in a statement that Thai forces shelled the Cambodian border city of Poipet.

- 'Pretty good shape' -

Each side has blamed the other for instigating the fresh fighting and traded accusations of attacks on civilians, after five days of clashes in July killed dozens.

The United States, China and Malaysia brokered a truce to end that round of fighting, but the ceasefire was short-lived.

In October, US President Donald Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed in Kuala Lumpur to prolong their truce.

But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month.

Trump on Monday referred again to the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand as one of the eight wars he had "solved" around the world.

"Thailand is starting to shape up. You know, they started with Cambodia, they started up again," he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

"But I think... we have that in pretty good shape, to have that stopped."

Q.Najjar--SF-PST