30/07/2025

WEDNESDAY | JULY 30, 2025

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Thailand-Cambodia border calm

place, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “The ceasefire agreement has to be enforced,” he said. “It cannot be left to Thailand and Cambodia to implement because the hostilities are running so deep now.” – Reuters

leaders that trade negotiations would not progress if fighting continued. The ceasefire deal reflected a rare convergence of interest between the US and China, which also pushed for the talks, but the agreement itself remained fragile and third-party monitoring was essential to keep it in

in May, which led to a troop buildup on both sides and a full-blown diplo matic crisis. Monday’s peace talks came after a sustained push by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and President Donald Trump, with the latter warning Thai and Cambodian

“Each side will establish a coordi nating team of four to resolve any problems,” Winthai said. Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said he had spoken to Cambodia’s defence minis ter and calm had returned to border area. “There is no escalation,” Phumtham told reporters. “Right now things are calm.” Maly Socheata, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Defence Ministry, said at a briefing yesterday that there had been no new fighting along the border. Vehicular traffic and daily activity resumed in the Kantharalak district of Thailand’s Sisaket province yester day, about 30km from the frontlines, where Thai and Cambodian troops remain amassed. Chaiya Phumjaroen, 51, said he returned to town to reopen his shop early yesterday, after hearing of the ceasefire deal on the news. “I am very happy that a ceasefire happened,” he said. “If they continue to fight, we have no opportunity to make money.” In Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province, 63-year-old Ly Kim Eng sat in front of a makeshift tarpaulin shel ter, waiting for directions after hear ing of the ceasefire deal. “So, if the authorities announce it is safe for all of the refugees to return home, I would immediately return,” he said. The Southeast Asian neighbours have wrangled for decades over their disputed frontier and have been on a conflict footing since the killing of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish late

BANGKOK: Military commanders from Thailand and Cambodia held talks yesterday, as calm returned to their disputed border and displaced residents began trickling back, following the Southeast Asian neighbours announcing a truce to end five days of fighting. Thai and Cambodian leaders met in Malaysia on Monday and agreed to a ceasefire deal to halt their deadliest conflict in more than a decade that has killed at least 40 people, mostly civilians, and displaced over 300,000 in both countries. Although Thailand’s military said that there had been attacks by Cambodian troops in at least five locations early yesterday, violating the ceasefire that had come into effect from midnight, commanders from both sides met and held talks, a Thai army spokesman said. This includes negotiations between the general leading Thailand’s 2nd region army, which oversees the stretch of the frontier that has seen the heaviest fighting during the conflict, and his Cambodian counterpart, Thai Major Gen Winthai Suvaree told reporters. The commanders, who met at the border, agreed to maintain the cease fire, stop any troop movement, and facilitate the return of the wounded and dead bodies, he said. o Commanders hold talks, agree to maintain ceasefire

An armoured personnel carrier reversing onto a truck near the border in Sisaket province, Thailand yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Weary refugees waiting to head home SAMRAONG (Cambodia): On

Block use of Starlink by criminal groups, Musk urged WASHINGTON: A Democratic senator on Monday urged SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to block transnational criminal groups in Southeast Asia from using Starlink satellite internet service to commit fraud against Americans. mitting SpaceX to terminate access for fraudulent activity,” Hassan wrote in a letter to Musk seen by Reuters. “SpaceX has a responsibility to block criminals from using the service to target Americans.” the world may be perpetrating these scams by using Starlink internet access,” Hassan wrote.

“However, people who are very poor like me, we stay here to make money to feed my children.” The town is directly south of the O Smach border crossing, and shell ing and gunfire were heard on Monday afternoon, said Meach Sovannara, head of the opposition New Generation Party, adding some local villagers were injured after their homes were hit by stray bul lets. “Bullets from gunfire don’t know whether people are Cambodian or Thai,” he said. “We all know that the war is a disaster. Separated families – they can’t farm, do business. Students can’t study. People wounded, dead.” A decades-long border dispute between the two Southeast Asian neighbours has escalated since May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a skirmish and both countries began reinforcing troops along their 800km border. Both sides accused the other of starting last week’s fighting. The two neighbours agreed an “immediate and unconditional” ceasefire at a meeting in Malaysia on Monday. At the refugee camp, residents are still wary. “I really wanted to return home but I dare not go now yet,” said Seun Ruot, a 47-year-old housewife. “I’d rather wait later today or tomorrow to see what the situation looks like.” – Reuters

Since February, Thailand has halted electricity, internet, and fuel supplies to five Myanmar border areas, includ ing Myawaddy, in a bid to disrupt the scam centres, which have become an escalating regional security concern. International pressure to shut down the scam centres intensified fol lowing the abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was kidnapped after arriving in Thailand in January. He was later rescued by Thai police, who found him across the border in Myanmar. Criminal networks are known to run several of these scam centres, including those in the Myawaddy region. – Reuters Sjamsoeedin witnessed the agree ment signing, Frega said, adding the contract signing reaffirms the commit ment of both governments to strengthen joint technology develop ment and expand Indonesia’s defence industry capacity. Indonesia also signed an MoU with Turkiye’s TAIS Shipyard to buy two Milgem Istif class frigates during the defence fair in Istanbul, according to a social media post by Sjafrie late on Monday. The Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ques tion about details of the frigate deal.

Cambodia’s northwestern border, residents staying in makeshift refu gee shelters were waiting to head home yesterday after a fierce five day conflict with Thailand ended in a ceasefire effective from Monday night. “If they (the government) say that my village is safe to return then I would go back home and reunite with my family because here is not as easy to live as my home,” said Meun Saray, a 45-year-old woman holding a child under a tarpaulin shelter in a muddy field near the border town of Samraong. Samraong, capital of Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province, was almost completely deserted on Monday, with most of its shops shuttered and its roads eerily quiet after many of its 70,000 residents fled the conflict. About 320km from the capital Phnom Penh, the town was caught in the middle of the most intense fighting between the two countries in more than a decade, when a sim mering border dispute boiled over into a violent military confrontation starting on July 24. “People left because they were scared of fighting,” said Inn Theary, a local resident and street vendor who couldn’t afford to leave town. “Some people went to live with their relatives and some others went to stay in the refugee camp,” she said.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For years, criminal networks have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to scam compounds across Southeast Asia, including many along the Thai-Myanmar border, where vic tims are forced to work in illegal online schemes, according to the United Nations. “While most people have probably noticed the increasing number of scam texts, calls, and emails they’re receiving, they may not know that transnational criminals halfway across

Senator Maggie Hassan cited recent reports that Starlink is being used to commit fraud against Americans by a broad range of crimi nal organisations operating “scam compounds” in Southeast Asia. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said these groups defrauded Americans out of billions of dollars, she said. “Scam networks in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, how ever, have apparently continued to use Starlink despite service rules per

Indonesia buys Turkish fighter jets JAKARTA: Indonesia has signed a contract to buy 48 KAAN fighter jets from Turkiye, the Indonesian Defence Ministry said yesterday, sealing the lat est purchase aimed at modernising its ageing military hardware. Defence Ministry spokesperson Frega Wenas Inkriwang said in a statement. He did not provide details of the contract value or delivery dates. KAAN is Turkiye’s first national com

bat aircraft and it completed its first flight in February last year, but serial production is not expected to begin until 2028. Turkiye’s Defence Ministry called the jet a fifth-generation aircraft and said it will be powered by two General Electric F-110 engines, which are also used in the fourth-generation Lockheed Martin F-16 jets. Defence Minister Sjafrie

Jakarta also ordered 42 French Rafale jets worth US$8.1 billion (RM34 billion) in 2022. It is also considering ordering China’s J-10 fighter jets and continues talks to buy the US-made F 15EX jets. Indonesia and Turkiye “signed an implementation contract”on Saturday on the sidelines of the International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul,