Renewed fighting between Thailand and Cambodia along their shared border has now raged for over a week, undercutting U.S. President Donald Trump’s aspirations to be a peacemaker, while also threatening an economy that spreads across Southeast Asia.
Thai and Cambodian forces clashed earlier this year, which ended after the Trump administration helped to broker a peace deal between the two countries, both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a bloc of eleven Southeast Asian countries. Trump announced the deal with great fanfare on Oct. 26, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, and since touted the deal as evidence of his dealmaking prowess.
