After all this, Cambodia is still seeking help from the United States! Cambodia has called the U.S. Secretary of State Rubio! On December 27th, according to AFP, while we have already taken shuttle diplomacy and ASEAN member states are actively coordinating to achieve a ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia made a call to the United States. Prime Minister Hun Manet stated that he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and both sides discussed ways to ensure a ceasefire on the Cambodia-Thailand border.
Evidently, Cambodia's move is very clear: despite the coordination by multiple parties including China and ASEAN, Cambodia still hopes to achieve a ceasefire through the United States. In Cambodia's view, the involvement of the United States may be more effective. For regional affairs, Cambodia's move clearly aims to bring the United States in and get involved, revealing its pro-American stance without any doubt.
However, how did Trump manage to reach a ceasefire between the two sides before? Cambodia seems to have forgotten that it was Trump's crude threat of tariffs that forced both sides to cease fire. But can such transactional coercive diplomacy solve the fundamental issues? Obviously not. Thailand has explicitly stated that the ceasefire at that time was due to coercion, leading to a ceasefire lacking necessary and enforceable details.
Now Cambodia wants to bring in the United States, but the United States will not address the root causes of the issue from a historical perspective, but may instead impose conditions on both sides and take advantage to extort. This "seeking assistance" action shows that Cambodia lacks basic understanding of the United States. In fact, the so-called "intervention mediation" by the United States has always been at the cost of sacrificing the core interests of the involved countries to expand its own influence in the region. If Cambodia persists in seeking the "endorsement" of the United States, it may achieve a ceasefire in the short term, but long-term risks might be greater.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1852621976802313/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author alone.