Starmer assures Ukraine’s President Zelensky of Britain’s unwavering support after White House blowout

LONDON: France and Britain have not agreed on a partial truce plan for Ukraine, a UK minister said on Monday, after French President Emmanuel Macron said it had been proposed by the two nations.
Macron told France’s Le Figaro newspaper on Sunday that London and Paris are proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine “in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure.”
Macron said such a truce would not, initially at least, cover ground fighting.
“No agreement has been made on what a truce looks like,” UK armed forces minister Luke Pollard told Times Radio.
“But we are working together with France and our European allies to look at what is the path to how... we create a lasting and durable peace in Ukraine,” he added.
A UK government official also played down any agreement.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the person said: “There are various options on the table, subject to further discussions with the US and European partners but a one-month truce has not been agreed.”
Macron’s comments came after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened crisis talks over Ukraine with European leaders, NATO chief Mark Rutte and Canada in central London on Sunday.
“As the PM said in his press conference, we need and want to progress with momentum and are pleased today’s summit has enabled discussions to move forward. Those discussions will continue at pace,” said a Downing Street spokesperson.

BANGKOK: Thailand is studying the idea of building a wall on part of its border with Cambodia to prevent illegal crossings, its government said on Monday, as a multi-national effort to dismantle a sprawling network of illicit scam centers mounts. The crackdown is widening against scam centers responsible for carrying out massive financial fraud out of Southeast Asia, especially those on Thailand’s porous borders with Myanmar and Cambodia, where hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked by criminal gangs in recent years, according to the United Nations. At the weekend, Thai police received 119 Thai nationals from Cambodian authorities after a raid in the town of Poipet pulled out over 215 people from a scam compound.
“If it is done, how will it be done? What results and how will it solve problems? This is a study,” Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said of the wall proposal, without specifying its length.
Cambodia’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the wall proposal.
Thailand and Cambodia share a border of 817km. The Thai defense ministry has previously proposed a wall to block off a 55 km natural crossing between Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province and Poipet, which at present is only protected by razor wire.
Telecom fraud centers have been operating for years in Southeast Asia, ensnaring people of multiple countries as far away as West Africa. They have faced heightened scrutiny after the rescue in January of Chinese actor, Wang Xing, who was lured to Thailand with the promise of a job before being abducted and taken to a scam center in Myanmar. In Myanmar’s Myawaddy, more than 7,000 foreigners – mostly from China – are waiting to cross from into Thailand, which is coordinating with embassies to try to streamline their repatriations. Hundreds of foreigners pulled out of the compounds are in limbo in squalid conditions in a militia camp and struggling to secure a route home, according to some detainees, while a top Thai lawmaker last week said the crackdown is insufficient, estimating 300,000 people have been operating in compounds in Myawaddy alone.