STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Southeast Asia, where Thailand and neighboring Cambodia have agreed to a ceasefire. They say they are ending the worst fighting between those two countries in more than a decade. The fighting began last week. At least 35 people died, and more than 200,000 people were displaced since Thursday. Reporter Michael Sullivan has been following the conflict and joins us now from Chiang Rai, Thailand. Hey there, Michael.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: What's the deal?
SULLIVAN: Well, this agreement was announced by the meeting's host - Malaysia's prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim - and calls for the ceasefire to begin tonight at midnight local time, with details to be ironed out later. Now, the two sides were strongly encouraged over the weekend by President Trump to end the fighting immediately. And he warned them that neither would secure a trade deal with the U.S. by Trump's August 1 deadline without a ceasefire. And both are looking at tariffs of a whopping 36%, and both are clearly hoping to do better. And with this agreement, if the ceasefire holds, they just may. And both Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Manet, and Thailand's acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, were quick to thank President Trump for his efforts after the ceasefire announcement. And again, if it holds, it'll mean those who have been displaced by the fighting can return home.
INSKEEP: I need the basics here. What is the history behind this fight? I don't think many people have been paying close attention to the fact these two countries have been in conflict for so long.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. This has been a simmering dispute for years - for decades, really - over the contested border between the two that dates back to a map drawn by France when it was a colonial power in the region. And these border areas are home to a number of religious sites - temples mostly - claimed by both sides. Now, in May, a Cambodian soldier was shot and killed in one of these disputed areas. And things just went downhill from there - border closures, cutting off imports, etc. And then last week, one Thai soldier lost his leg after stepping on a land mine that injured four more while on patrol in the disputed area. The Thais claimed the mine was newly laid and pointed the finger at Cambodia, which denied the charge. And the next day, the fighting erupted. But there was also a political twist to all of this, Steve, that helped fan the flames as well.
INSKEEP: Oh, this is interesting. So you've got this conflict that goes back to colonial times, but you're saying there's a more recent political angle. What's that?
SULLIVAN: Yeah. Last month, the Thai prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, reached out to an old family friend of her father, deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. That friend was Cambodia's former prime minister, Hun Sen. Paetongtarn claimed she was reaching out to diffuse tension between the two sides. But Hun Sen leaked the phone call, one in which she referred to him as uncle and appeared to make disparaging remarks about a Thai general. And this infuriated Thai nationalists and her political opponents at a time when her coalition government was already just barely holding on. She's now been suspended pending an investigation into that conversation, which critics say made the country look weak.
INSKEEP: Hun Sen, a figure from history. What's in this conflict for him?
SULLIVAN: That's unclear, Steve. I mean, his son Hun Manet became prime minister two years ago, and his party essentially runs Cambodia as a one-party state. Maybe Hun Sen was just trying to solidify the family's power even more by playing the nationalist card, or maybe he was looking to internationalize the border dispute that the Thais have been insisting be settled bilaterally. But given President Trump's involvement over the weekend and the fact this meeting was held in Malaysia, he may have partially succeeded in the latter.
INSKEEP: Wow. NPR's reporter Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Michael, it's good to hear from you again. Thanks for your insights.
SULLIVAN: Thanks, Steve.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
