Since Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia in January 1979, there seemed to be no solution to the Cambodian dispute. In July 1987, the Foreign Minister of Indonesia proposed that they would participate in the negotiation without conditions to solve the conflict of Cambodia. This initiative began to open the way to the issue. Sihanouk, the leader of United Democrats and Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Heng Samrin government, agreed to end the dispute at Paris meeting.

On the other hand, the demand of Vietnamese troop's withdrawal, neutralization of the Southeast Asia and formation of a nuclear-free zone was discussed at the Third ASEAN Summit Conference in Manila in January 1979. Vietnam announced that they would evacuate their soldiers regardless of the result of the compromise between two groups from the late 1988 in January 12, 1988.

Gorbachev, the Soviet Union Communists Chief Secretary, asked to hold a summit conference between China the Soviet Union. China re-affirmed its stance that it would not take part in the talk as long as Vietnamese troops stayed in Cambodia. The effort to solve the Cambodian dispute began at Geneva in April 1988 when the Soviet Army started to pull out of Afghanistan.