The United States, which played a major role in ending border clashes last year between Thailand and Cambodia, will be providing $45 million in aid packages to the two Southeast Asian countries to help ensure regional stability and prosperity, a senior U.S. State Department official said Friday.
The United States will extend $45 million in assistance to Thailand and Cambodia as part of efforts to support stability and economic growth in Southeast Asia, a senior State Department official said on Friday. Washington had earlier played a key role in halting border clashes between the two neighbours last year.
The announcement was made by US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre during a virtual briefing from Bangkok, where he is holding talks with senior Thai leaders on implementing the ceasefire agreement reached in October, known as the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord.
The fighting stemmed from long-running and unresolved territorial disputes along stretches of the Thailand-Cambodia border.
DeSombre said the easing of tensions between the two countries created fresh scope for the United States to expand cooperation with both governments, aimed at strengthening regional security and advancing shared interests in a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.
DeSombre is also scheduled to travel to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, on Saturday to meet with senior Cambodian officials.
The United States “will be providing $15 million for border stabilization to help communities recover and to support displaced persons; $10 million in demining and unexploded ordinance clearance operations; and $20 million for initiatives that will help both countries combat scam operations and drug trafficking, among many other programs,” DeSombre said.
Details of the aid packages were still under discussion, he said.
China said it has provided about $2.8 million in emergency humanitarian aid to help Cambodians displaced by the fighting. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Beijing made the same offer of assistance to Thailand, and that it was under consideration by his government.
The United States and China have competed for influence in Southeast Asia for at least a decade. Cambodia is a close ally of Beijing, and while Thailand has long and close ties with Washington, they are widely seen as loosening in recent years.
The fighting in July and December displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Thailand and Cambodia and killed about 100 soldiers and civilians. Land mines left over from decades of civil war in Cambodia are a continuing problem, while Thailand claims newly laid mines in frontier areas were responsible for wounding its patrolling soldiers in about a dozen incidents last year.
Online scams originating in Southeast Asia, especially from Cambodia and Myanmar, are major transnational crime problems that have swindled billions of dollars from victims around the would.
U.S. assistance to the countries of Southeast Asia and other parts of the world for humanitarian and development programs was severely cut last year when the Trump administration shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.
Cambodia and Thailand initially clashed for five days in late July before agreeing on a preliminary ceasefire. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the time pressed for an unconditional ceasefire, but there was little headway until U.S. President Donald Trump intervened. Trump said that he warned the Thai and Cambodian leaders that Washington wouldn’t move forward with trade agreements if hostilities continued.
The ceasefire was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.
New fighting broke out early last month, but the Thai and Cambodian defense ministers signed a new pact on Dec. 27, vowing to implement the October agreement.
“We are very focused on pursuing peace in and around the world,” DeSombre told journalists. “President Trump is a president of peace, and really believes that peace is critical to economic growth and prosperity.”
With inputs from agencies
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