Hun Sen threatens to close border with Thailand, ban Thai products

Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen today threatened to close all border checkpoints with Thailand and ban all Thai products if Thai authorities do not fully reopen border checkpoints that have been partially closed.

Addressing a senate meeting this morning, Hun Sen said Cambodia was supposed to close all its borders with Thailand today, but the government has postponed the decision after he and Prime Minister Hun Manet had a phone conversation with Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, according to the Khmer Times.

“If Thailand does not fully reopen all its border checkpoints with Cambodia from tomorrow onwards, we will impose bans on Thai fruit and vegetables from entering all our border checkpoints,” he said.

Thailand has imposed restrictions on the opening hours of several border checkpoints with Cambodia in the past one week as tensions over the two countries’ border dispute.

The Cambodian former prime minister added that Cambodia will cancel its ongoing border entry restriction with Thailand if the Thai authorities open Thailand’s borders from 6am to 10pm like before.

The Khmer Times said Hun Sen also made it clear that Cambodian authorities will never sit down and negotiate with Thai authorities over the border restriction, as it was Thailand who started it.

“It was the Thai army who restricted the borders, and when Cambodia did the same, you wanted to negotiate to save your face?” he questioned. “We will not put our reputation on the line for others’ mistakes!”