Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday agreed to a new ceasefire to halt weeks of fierce border clashes, easing the worst fighting in years between the two Southeast Asian neighbours and raising cautious hopes that a spiralling conflict can be contained.
The truce, which took effect at noon local time, appeared to be holding in its early hours. Thai Defence Ministry spokesperson Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri said there had been no immediate reports of gunfire about two hours after the ceasefire began. Cambodian authorities likewise reported no new clashes after alleging a Thai airstrike early on Saturday, shortly before the ceasefire was announced.
The agreement was signed by Thai Defence Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit and his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Seiha, ending nearly 20 days of intense fighting that has killed at least 101 people and forced more than half a million civilians on both sides of the border to flee their homes. The violence marked the most serious escalation in years, featuring fighter jet sorties, exchanges of rocket fire and sustained artillery barrages along multiple stretches of the frontier.
In a joint statement, the two defence ministers said both sides had agreed to maintain their current troop deployments without any further movement, warning that reinforcements would only heighten tensions and undermine longer-term efforts to resolve the dispute. Cambodia released the statement on social media, underlining a shared commitment to prevent further escalation.
The latest ceasefire follows the collapse earlier this month of a previous truce brokered with the help of United States President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. That earlier agreement had halted a round of fighting in July, but mutual accusations of violations and troop movements soon reignited hostilities, plunging border communities back into violence.
Saturday’s agreement also sets out a framework for monitoring and communication. Natthaphon said the ceasefire would be overseen by an observer team from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), alongside direct coordination between Thai and Cambodian forces on the ground. At the policy level, he added, there would be direct communication between the defence ministers and the chiefs of the armed forces of both countries to address incidents swiftly and prevent misunderstandings.
Diplomatic efforts are set to intensify in the coming days. Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and his Thai counterpart, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, are scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in China’s Yunnan province on Sunday and Monday to discuss the border situation. China has long maintained close ties with both countries and has sought to play a quiet role in easing regional tensions.
The roots of the conflict stretch back more than a century. Thailand and Cambodia share an 817-kilometre land border, parts of which remain undemarcated, and competing claims over sovereignty at several points have periodically erupted into skirmishes. While most incidents have been localised and short-lived, the latest clashes spread across a wider area and involved heavier weaponry, raising alarm across the region.
Tensions peaked in July, when the two sides fought for five days along sections of the frontier, leaving at least 48 people dead and displacing some 300,000 residents before outside mediation produced a truce. That ceasefire unravelled in early December as fighting spread from forested regions near Laos to coastal provinces along the Gulf of Thailand, underscoring how quickly local disputes can escalate.
The renewed ceasefire was reached after a flurry of regional diplomacy. ASEAN foreign ministers held a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the week, followed by three days of talks between Thai and Cambodian representatives at a border checkpoint. Those discussions culminated in the face-to-face meeting between the two defence ministers on Saturday, paving the way for the agreement.
Beyond halting the fighting, the pact includes humanitarian measures aimed at easing the suffering of civilians caught in the conflict. Both sides agreed on the return of displaced people to affected border areas and stressed that no force would be used against civilians. Thailand also committed to returning 18 Cambodian soldiers who have been in its custody since the July clashes, provided the ceasefire is fully maintained for 72 hours.
However, the agreement leaves some of the most sensitive issues unresolved. It does not affect ongoing border demarcation activities, meaning that long-standing disputes over specific areas will continue to be handled through existing bilateral mechanisms. Analysts say this underscores the fragility of the truce, as the underlying causes of the conflict remain in place.
Thai military leaders sought to strike a conciliatory tone. “War and clashes don’t make the two countries or the two people happy,” Air Chief Marshal Prapas Sornjaidee told reporters, stressing that ordinary Thais and Cambodians were not enemies. His remarks echoed a broader message from both governments that the conflict is a political and military dispute, not a clash between peoples.
Calm along the border offers a measure of relief to communities battered by weeks of shelling and displacement. Whether the ceasefire can hold — and whether it can lead to a more durable settlement — will depend on sustained restraint, effective monitoring and continued diplomatic engagement in a region where historical grievances have too often flared into violence.
