Malaysia: Can ASEAN Summit Deliver Regional Peace

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Thailand-Cambodia border tensions and Myanmar's civil war will be key topics of discussion at the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia, ASEAN's current rotating chair, will host over 30 heads of state at the October 26-28 event, including US President Donald Trump, who is expected to oversee the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia.

The two neighbors have a long-standing border dispute that goes back over a century.

Tensions along the Thai-Cambodia frontier erupted into full-scale cross-border combat in July. At least 43 people were killed and 300,000 civilians displaced during five days of clashes. 

A ceasefire agreement brokered by Malaysia, China, and the US came into effect on July 29. 

However, despite the peace pact, tensions have remained high between the two neighbors. Thailand has accused Cambodia of laying landmines along parts of its joint frontier, saying that several Thai soldiers have been maimed by the munitions since July.

Cambodia denied the allegations and said that some Thai soldiers stepped on ordnance planted during a decades-long civil war that left it as one of the world's most heavily mined countries.

US pushes for lasting peace deal

Trump has vowed to oversee the signing of a formal agreement for lasting peace between Thailand and Cambodia. 

The US president had initially threatened to<...