US President Donald Trump claimed on Friday that he has succeeded in maintaining the US-mediated ceasefire agreement between Cambodia and Thailand which was on the verge of breaking.
“I just stopped a war today,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One (the US President’s official plane) as he flew to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida over the weekend.He said that his actions were possible because of his will to impose heavy tariffs on countries around the world.
Trump argues that his strategy of imposing tariffs on countries gives America a huge advantage in trade and diplomatic benefits. The president said he had spoken by phone to the prime ministers of Cambodia and Thailand, who are now “doing very well.”
A territorial dispute over the border between the two Southeast Asian neighbors led to a five-day armed conflict in late July that left many soldiers and civilians dead.
Trump’s threat that both countries would lose trade privileges if they did not stop the war helped temporarily halt the conflict. However, the ceasefire was on the verge of collapse this week when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said a villager had been killed in firing on his country’s border with Thailand.
