Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday signed a new ceasefire agreement, ending weeks of military conflict over disputed territories. Thai Defense Minister General Natthaphon Narkphanit and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Tea Seiha signed the joint agreement at the third special meeting of the General Boundary Committee (GBC), reaffirming a previous ceasefire in July and outlining 16 de-escalation measures intended to stabilize the region.
The agreement’s key provisions include an immediate halt to all hostilities effective from noon on December 27. In line with principles of the Kuala Lumpur Joint Declaration signed in October, Thailand will return 18 Cambodian soldiers after 72 hours of sustained ceasefire.
The de-escalation agreement also mandates restrictions on troop movements, commitments to refrain from provocative actions, and joint efforts on humanitarian demining. In the agreement, both sides reaffirm their obligations under the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as the current Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chair, welcomed the ceasefire, saying, “The decision to halt fighting and to hold forces in place reflects a shared recognition that restraint is required, above all in the interest of civilians.”
Thailand and Cambodia have been locked in a protracted border dispute rooted in colonial-era mapping from the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907, which ambiguously defined the boundaries between Thailand and French Indochina (present-day Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos). A focal point of the tensions is the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled belongs to Cambodia in 1962, a decision reaffirmed in 2013. While Thailand officially recognizes Cambodian ownership of the ancient Khmer temple, it claims some surrounding lands under Cambodian control. Some Thai nationalists continue to assert claims to the temple itself, which has contributed to ongoing tensions.
A ceasefire brokered by the US and Malaysia collapsed in November after Thailand withdrew from the agreement following a landmine incident that injured two Thai soldiers. The subsequent escalation has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with 40 civilians either killed or wounded and 800,000 people forced to flee the region. In response, the Chair’s Statement at the Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 22 December called for an immediate end to hostilities and a return to diplomatic negotiations, supported by the ASEAN Observer Team (AOT).
