Quick end to a dangerous border stand-off

The leaders of Laos and Cambodia made exactly the right moves over the weekend, acting quickly to avoid a military clash on their shared border. In doing so, they might well have avoided casualties and significant destruction of property.
Territorial disputes have taken place between countries in this region from time to time in recent decades – Cambodia has come to blows with Thailand and Vietnam and Thailand and Laos have displayed aggression. But they’re a rarity between Cambodia and Laos, both of which had fraternal communist governments for years.
Still, a stretch of the frontier – where Attapeu province in Laos faces Cambodia’s Stung Treng – has never been properly demarcated, and for more than a year tensions have smouldered between the two nations. Anger boiled over in February when hundreds of Lao troops crossed the Mekong River to halt Cambodia’s construction of a road. The administrative boundary line set out in the days of French Indochina suddenly became brittle.
The borderline was an issue after the communist take-overs of both countries in the mid-1970s. The new regimes in Vientiane and Phnom Penh were both nominally Marxist-Leninist, but they had drastically different approaches to government – and to securing their territory. It became common for Khmer Rouge troops to fire indiscriminately at Lao citizens across the frontier. Once the Khmer Rouge was purged, relations with Vientiane improved markedly. 
That lasted until 1995, when Cambodian politicians accused Lao troops of occupying Khmer territory, but the issue did not become inflamed. Boundary commissions were established and met for the first time in November that same year. Those talks have continued ever since, reportedly making some progress in terms of surveying and demarcation. But it’s estimated that 14 per cent of the border – extending 547 kilometres on land – remains to be demarcated. Clearly that’s a big enough gap for conflict, especially when opportunistic politicians are ready to push nationalist sentiments to the fore.
Sensing the danger after receiving no response from his Lao counterpart to a written ultimatum, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday promptly flew to Vientiane for a meeting with Thongloun Sisoulith. Hun Sen said he would halt the road construction. Thongloun agreed to withdraw his troops. Hun Sen assured him no Cambodian troops would move into the area. It was an inspiring display of statesmanship – even if the predicament should not have been allowed to fester in the first place. The two leaders probably saved many lives, not only those of soldiers but also of civilians living in the vicinity.
The troop withdrawal also allows the border committees to meet, hopefully with some urgency, to put an end to this particular border issue. It is important to note that this is not just about a geographical line on a map. Chief among related matters is deforestation. Timber is routinely smuggled through the area.
Seeing the Lao and Cambodian leaders resolve the dispute peacefully ought to reassure all Southeast Asian nations about what is possible when feuding parties negotiate in good faith. It bodes well for regional harmony and stability. 
And it was a vast improvement over what happened between Thailand and Laos in the late 1980s – when troops similarly responding to the construction of a road unleashed heavy arms. And between Thailand and Cambodia in 2009-2011, when lives were needlessly lost on both sides in an argument over which country owned a cliff edge sporting a temple ruin.