Trump tour of Asia begins with Thai-Cambodian ceasefire deal

Donald Trump has overseen the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of an Asia tour during which he will seal new trade agreements and hold a crucial meeting with China’s Xi Jinping.

- Helen Davidson

The US president arrived in Malaysia yesterday before the Asean summit in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. At a ceasefire ceremony in front of a sign that read “Delivering Peace”, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed an expanded ceasefire deal related to a deadly five-day conflict in July.

Trump helped broker the end of the two countries’ worst border conflict in recent history, telling the leaders they risked putting their respective trade talks with the US on hold if they did not end hostilities.

“The United States will have robust commerce and cooperation, transactions, lots of them, with both nations, as long as they live in peace,” he said yesterday.

Trump has touted himself as a global peacemaker during his second term and his decision to weigh in behind the Malaysian premier Anwar Ibrahim’s mediation efforts prompted Manet to nominate him for the Nobel prize, lauding his “extraordinary statesmanship”.

Trump told reporters yesterday that he also intended to solve the current Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict “very quickly”.