BANGKOK, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Thailand’s caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Friday he was scheduled to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump late in the day, as border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand continued for a fifth day.
Anutin told reporters that the call with Trump would take place about 2120 local time (1420 GMT).
Trump is keen to intervene again to stop the fighting and salvage a ceasefire he brokered earlier this year, pledging for a third day to make calls to the leaders of both countries to try to stop the fighting.
At the Congressional Ball late on Thursday, Trump burnished his credentials as a global peace-maker and expressed confidence he would get the truce “back on track”.
“We’ve solved eight wars. Think of it. Eight wars have been solved, although Thailand and Cambodia, I think we are going to have to make a couple of phone calls on Thailand and (Cambodia) but we’ll get that one back on track,” he said.
The militaries of Thailand and Cambodia have been fighting at multiple locations along their 817-km (508-mile) border in some of the most intense fighting since a five-day battle in July, which Trump stopped with calls to both leaders to halt their worst conflict in recent history.
At least 20 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced by days-long exchanges of heavy artillery and rocket fire.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by David Stanway)
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