On this picture launched by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Cambodian Protection Minister Tea Seiha, left, stands with Thai Protection Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit, proper, on the Basic Border Committee Assembly in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025.
AP/Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP)
disguise caption
toggle caption
AP/Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP)
BANGKOK — Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday signed a ceasefire settlement to finish weeks of armed fight alongside their border over competing claims to territory. It took impact at midday native time.
Along with ending combating, the settlement requires no additional navy actions by both facet and no violations of both facet’s airspace for navy functions.
Solely Thailand employed airstrikes within the combating, hitting websites in Cambodia as not too long ago as Saturday morning, in line with the Cambodian protection ministry.
The deal additionally requires Thailand, after the ceasefire has held for 72 hours, to repatriate 18 Cambodian troopers it has held as prisoners since earlier combating in July. Their launch has been a significant demand of the Cambodian facet.
The settlement was signed by the 2 international locations’ protection ministers, Cambodia’s Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Nattaphon Narkphanit, at a checkpoint on their border after lower-level talks by navy officers met for 3 days as a part of the already-established Basic Border Committee.
The settlement declares that the 2 sides are dedicated to an earlier ceasefire that ended 5 days of combating in July and follow-up agreements, and contains commitments to 16 de-escalation measures.
The unique July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed by way of by strain from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold commerce privileges except Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in additional element in October at a regional assembly in Malaysia that Trump attended.
The Thai navy fires artillery in direction of Cambodia, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, seen from Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province.
Wason Wanichakorn/AP
disguise caption
toggle caption
Wason Wanichakorn/AP
Regardless of these offers, the 2 international locations carried on a bitter propaganda conflict and minor cross-border violence continued, escalating in early December to widespread heavy combating.
Thailand has misplaced 26 troopers and one civilian as a direct results of the fight since Dec. 7, in line with officers. Thailand has additionally reported 44 civilian deaths from collateral results of the state of affairs.
Cambodia hasn’t issued an official determine on navy casualties, however says that 30 civilians have been killed and 90 injured. Lots of of hundreds of individuals have been evacuated from affected areas on each side of the border.
Either side blamed the opposite for initiating the combating and claimed to be performing in self-defense.
The settlement additionally calls on each side to stick to worldwide agreements in opposition to deploying land mines, a significant concern of Thailand. Thai troopers alongside the border have been wounded in not less than 9 incidents this 12 months by what they stated have been newly planted Cambodian mines. Cambodia says the mines have been left over from many years of civil conflict that ended within the late Nineteen Nineties.
One other clause says the 2 sides “conform to chorus from disseminating false info or pretend information.”
The settlement additionally says beforehand established measures to demarcate the border will probably be resumed and the 2 sides additionally conform to cooperate on an effort to suppress transnational crimes.
That’s primarily a reference to on-line scams perpetrated by organized crime which have bilked victims world wide of billions of {dollars} annually. Cambodia is a middle for such prison enterprises.
