HANOI, December 22. /TASS/. A special meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers dedicated to settling the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, which took place on Monday in Kuala Lumpur, ended without conclusion, the Cambodian newspaper Khmer Times reported, citing the President of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, Puy Kea, who is participating in covering the consultations in Malaysia.

According to his information, Cambodia and Thailand did not reach an agreement on a ceasefire during the special meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers and decided to hold another trilateral meeting involving Malaysia to discuss the following steps in the settlement process.

The negotiations reached a deadlock after the Thai side demanded that Cambodia fulfill three conditions to end hostilities: first, declare a ceasefire and acknowledge that it was the one who initiated the aggression, second, fully implement the provisions of the truce agreement reached at the 47th ASEAN Summit, and, third, cooperate with Thailand in mine clearance activities on the border areas.

The Cambodian side, in turn, demanded that Thailand cease fire from midnight on December 23 [5 p.m. GMT on December 22].

Clashes involving small arms began on December 7 on the border between Thailand and Cambodia. According to the Cambodian National Defense Ministry, the Thai armed forces carried out various provocative actions in border areas for several days, aiming to escalate a new round of confrontation. They then began attacking Cambodian army positions.

The Royal Thai Army stated that Cambodian forces initiated artillery attacks on Thai positions in the border area and that the Thai military responded by attacking Cambodian military infrastructure to gain control of key areas and inflict damage on the enemy.