President Donald Trump said the U.S. will resume trade negotiations with Thailand and Cambodia after they agreed to halt clashes along their disputed border, taking credit for pushing them to peace after threatening punishing tariffs.

The two Southeast Asian nations reached a ceasefire Tuesday after five days of fighting, including airstrikes and artillery shelling, left at least three dozen dead and displaced more than 150,000 on both sides of their roughly 800 kilometer (500 mile) frontier.

“I have instructed my Trade Team to restart negotiations on Trade,” Trump said in a social media post Monday. “I am proud to be the President of PEACE!”

Both countries face 36% U.S. tariffs. Neighboring Vietnam secured a 20% rate, while levies for Indonesia and the Philippines were set at 19% ahead of Trump’s Aug. 1 deadline.

Thailand’s Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said Monday night Trump told him in a phone call after the peace talks that “we will get something very good out of it. He will do his best to give us as much as he can.”

The Thai baht was slightly weaker at 32.49 per dollar in early Asian trading Tuesday amid broad greenback strength. The country’s stock market is set to reopen at 10 a.m. local time after being closed Monday for a holiday.

Trump’s remarks are the latest example of how the U.S. leader has wielded trade as a way to resolve for geopolitical clashes, claiming credit for pressuring trading partners to end conflicts if they wish to retain continued access to U.S. markets.

The U.S. in June brokered a deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda aimed at ending years of conflict. And Trump has similarly claimed credit for halting a clash between nuclear powers India and Pakistan earlier this year.

Phumtham and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet reached their agreement in Malaysia on Monday in talks hosted by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, acting in his role as the chair of Asean.

Envoys from China and the U.S. were also at the negotiations, and a joint statement from the three Southeast Asian nations after the talks said the meeting had been “co-organized by the United States of America with the active participation of the People’s Republic of China.”

In their remarks after the meeting, both Phumtham and Hun Manet thanked Anwar and Trump, as well as China, for helping reach the ceasefire.

“The fact that the U.S. and China are both in on it is good.,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University. “Thailand needs the tariffs to come down from the U.S. side. And Trump will see this as a win.”

After its conflict with India was paused earlier this year, Pakistan hailed Trump’s intervention while New Delhi disputed his claims that securing trade deals helped clinch their ceasefire. Both countries are still engaged in trade talks.

In the DRC, Trump has said the U.S. stands to get mineral rights from the country after brokering their deal. Congo is the second-biggest copper producer and largest source of cobalt, giving it prominence in Washington’s efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains for minerals needed for a wide-range of cutting-edge technologies.

____

(With assistance from Patpicha Tanakasempipat, Karl Lester M. Yap and Matthew Burgess.)

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.