Rubio says US officials are in Malaysia to help in Cambodia-Thailand talks

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said State Department officials were in Malaysia to assist peace efforts as Cambodia and Thailand were scheduled to begin talks there on Monday in hopes for a ceasefire.

President Donald Trump and Rubio were engaged with their counterparts for each country and were monitoring the situation very closely, Rubio said in a statement released by the State Department late on Sunday in the U.S. and early Monday in Asia.

KEY QUOTES

“We want this conflict to end as soon as possible,” he said. “State Department officials are on the ground in Malaysia to assist these peace efforts.”

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

The leaders of Thailand and Cambodia were scheduled to attend mediation talks over their deadly border conflict in Malaysia on Monday, the Thai government said, as both sides accused each other of launching fresh artillery strikes across contested areas.

Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia have intensified since the late-May killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief border skirmish. Border troops on both sides were reinforced amid a full-blown diplomatic crisis that brought Thailand’s fragile coalition government to the brink of collapse.

Hostilities resumed on Thursday and, within just four days, escalated into the worst fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbors in more than a decade.

CONTEXT

The death toll has risen above 30, including 13 civilians in Thailand and eight in Cambodia, while authorities report that more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from border areas.

Trump said on Sunday he believed both Thailand and Cambodia wanted to settle their differences after he told the leaders of both countries that he would not conclude trade deals with them unless they ended their fighting.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Tom Hogue and Stephen Coates)