Thai PM to sign Cambodia ceasefire deal, skips summits over royal death

Thailand's prime minister will travel to Malaysia to sign a ceasefire deal with Cambodia that US President Donald Trump is set to witness after he pulled out of the ASEAN Summit due to the death of the kingdom's Queen Mother Sirikit on Saturday, Report informs via Reuters.

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were meeting on Saturday to start a weekend of global diplomacy in Kuala Lumpur, with teams from the United States and China holding trade talks alongside the summit.

Trump is due to arrive on Sunday morning for the first stop of his trip through Asia, and was set to watch Cambodia and Thailand sign a broader ceasefire deal after he helped broker an end to a deadly five-day border conflict in July.

Dozens of people were killed and around 300,000 were temporarily displaced in the most intense fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbors in recent history.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he had asked for the ceasefire ceremony to be held on Sunday morning, after which he would return to Thailand.

Anutin said he would also miss next week's APEC Summit in South Korea.

The Thai cabinet is scheduled to meet on Saturday morning to discuss the funeral arrangements.

At its annual meeting, ASEAN plans to press for trade multilateralism and deeper ties with new partners, while managing the fallout from Trump's global tariff offensive.

It will also welcome East Timor, Asia's youngest nation, as its 11th member.

Alongside the regional talks, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will hold a round of trade talks with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng.

The world's two biggest economies are looking to find a way forward after Trump threatened new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade curbs starting November 1 in retaliation for China's vastly expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.