Officials from Thailand and Cambodia have met in Malaysia for the start of border talks, a week after a fragile ceasefire brought an end to an eruption of five days of deadly clashes between the two countries.
The meeting on Monday came ahead of a key meeting on Thursday, which is expected to be led by the Thai and Cambodian defence ministers.
This week’s talks, which will be observed by representatives from China, Malaysia and the United States, aim to iron out plans to maintain the current truce and avoid future border confrontations.
They will include finalising details for a monitoring team from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysian Chief of Defence Forces General Mohd Nizam Jaffar said on Monday.
The sessions in Malaysia follow the worst fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in more than a decade.
Clashes along the long-disputed border last month killed at least 43 people, including civilians, and left more than 300, 000 others displaced, according to the Reuters news agency.
Relations between the neighbours deteriorated in May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a border skirmish, before worsening when Thai soldiers were injured by landmines in contested territory last month.
The Southeast Asian countries downgraded diplomatic relations and violence broke out, which both sides blamed the other for starting.
The recent fighting involved infantry clashes, artillery exchanges, air strikes and rocket fire.
A ceasefire was announced on July 28, in part following economic pressure from US President Donald Trump, who warned both countries that they could not make trade deals with Washington without a ceasefire.
Despite the fragile truce, tensions remain high and mistrust between the two sides lingers.
Cambodia’s defence ministry has accused Thailand of violating the terms of the ceasefire by installing barbed wire in a disputed border area, while the Thai military has suggested that the Cambodian army has reinforced troops in key areas.
Both countries have given foreign observers tours of last month’s battle sites, while seeking to show the damage allegedly inflicted by the other nation.
Thailand and Cambodia also accuse each other of violating international humanitarian laws by targeting citizens.
Phnom Penh continues to demand the release of 18 of its captured troops, whom Bangkok says it will only release following “a complete cessation of the armed conflict, not just a ceasefire”.
On Friday, Thailand returned two wounded Cambodian soldiers through a border checkpoint connecting Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey.
