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KUALA LUMPUR: US President Donald Trump will attend the ceremonial signing of a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia at an upcoming regional Southeast Asian summit, the foreign minister of host Malaysia said on Tuesday (Oct 14).
Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia erupted in July into the deadliest military clashes in decades, killing more than 40 people and forcing around 300,000 to flee their homes.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire - brokered in part by Trump - after five days of fighting, and have since repeatedly traded accusations of truce violations.
Trump "is looking forward to witness the Thailand-Cambodia peace deal", Mohamad Hasan told reporters at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Mohamad said the US leader would visit Malaysia on Oct 26 to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Malaysian capital from Oct 26 to 28.
He said Malaysia and the United States would serve as facilitators to "see a more extensive ceasefire deal" between Thailand and Cambodia, which will require "both sides to remove all landmines and withdraw their military machinery from their borders".
"We hope that both parties can fulfil these conditions and during the ASEAN summit a declaration can be signed.
"We can call it the Kuala Lumpur Declaration or the Kuala Lumpur Accord, we want to make sure that these two neighbouring countries can come together to make peace and also implement their ceasefire," Mohamad added.
Thai government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat told reporters Bangkok was aware the United States was giving the dispute priority.
"But what Cambodia has to do first, before we accept the US offer, are our four points that we have raised," he said.
Thailand Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Thursday that he had received a letter from Trump, with the US leader saying he wanted to see the two neighbours resolve tensions.
Anutin also said Thailand was ready to negotiate if Cambodia withdrew heavy weapons from border areas, removed landmines, cracked down on internet scammers and relocated its citizens from borderlands Thailand considers its own.
Cambodia has said its nationals have lived in the disputed border villages for decades.
Anutin's remarks came a day after the Thai premier appeared to brush off a continued role for Trump - who has been chasing a Nobel Peace Prize - in any further negotiations between the two nations aimed at solving their border dispute.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has said he nominated the US president for a Nobel Peace Prize, crediting him with "innovative diplomacy" that ended the clashes.
On Sunday, the Thai foreign ministry said the foreign ministers of both countries met in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend to discuss the ceasefire, with US and Malaysian officials present.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the current chair of ASEAN, has said Trump will attend the meetings but there has been no official confirmation yet from Washington.
The East Asia Summit, to be held during this month's ASEAN meeting, will issue a chairman’s statement, rather than a joint statement, as the United States had objected to use of the word "inclusivity", Mohamad added, without elaborating.
Leaders of all 10 members of the grouping and trading partners, such as China, Japan, Russia and the United States, will attend the summit.
