US president Donald Trump has continued to praise Malaysia and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for their role in securing a truce between Cambodia and Thailand.
He described Malaysia as “fantastic” for helping to implement the signing of the joint peace declaration, dubbed the Kuala Lumpur Accord, which took place on the sidelines of the recently concluded 47th Asean Summit.
“The prime minister (Anwar) was a great, great guy. Just left him, and within (the last) two days, we signed the deal,” Trump said at the Apec CEO Summit today.
“The two people (the Thai and Cambodian prime ministers) came in, they were like best friends. It was a beautiful thing to see. We saved probably millions of lives,” he said, noting the “tempestuous” relationship between the two neighbouring countries.
Trump also recounted personally reaching out to the leaders of both countries, making trade agreements contingent on peace.
“After about two days, and with the help of Malaysia, we managed to bring them to the table,” he said, in a reference to the initial ceasefire brokered on July 28 in Putrajaya.
The Kuala Lumpur Accord was signed by Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet, with Trump and Anwar witnessing the ceremony.
The signing formalised an earlier ceasefire agreement reached after both countries agreed to end their border conflict during the Extraordinary General Border Committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 7.
That meeting followed a special session held on July 28 in Putrajaya, which successfully halted five days of armed hostilities along the border region.
Tensions between the two neighbours over their 817km border had escalated into a military confrontation in late July, displacing about 300,000 people on both sides of the frontier.
