United States President Donald Trump on December 9 said he would intervene to ease fresh hostilities between Thailand and Cambodia, declaring at a rally in Pennsylvania that he would “make a phone call” to prevent further escalation. Addressing supporters, Trump claimed that he has already prevented several global conflicts during his second term.
Reaffirming a statement he has frequently made, Trump again asserted that he stopped a military confrontation between India and Pakistan earlier this year, saying he had halted “eight wars” in the past ten months. His repeated claims regarding the reported four-day standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in May have been consistently rejected by India.
“In 10 months, I ended eight wars, including Kosovo–Serbia, Pakistan and India. They were going at it… Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Trump told the gathering, before turning to the latest tensions along the Thailand–Cambodia border. “Cambodia and Thailand started up today. Tomorrow I have to make a phone call… I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war of two very powerful countries.”
He added, “Who else could say, ‘I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war of two very powerful countries?’”
According to AFP, renewed clashes have erupted along the historically disputed Thailand–Cambodia border, where overlapping territorial claims and colonial-era demarcation issues continue to trigger confrontations. The latest round of violence has resulted in at least 11 deaths, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, and forced around half a million people to flee their homes.
The two nations previously engaged in a five-day clash in July, which killed dozens and displaced nearly 300,000 people before a truce was reached following what Trump described as his intervention. The renewed hostilities have raised fears of another prolonged conflict, even as diplomatic efforts remain underway.
