Thailand and Cambodia sign a new ceasefire agreement to end border
fighting
[December 27, 2025]
By WASAMON AUDJARINT and SOPHENG CHEANG
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand and Cambodia signed a ceasefire agreement on
Saturday to end weeks of fighting along their border over competing
territorial claims.
The agreement took effect at noon (0500 GMT) and calls for a halt in
military movements and airspace violation for military purposes.
Only Thailand has carried out airstrikes, hitting sites in Cambodia as
recently as Saturday morning, according to the Cambodian Defense
Ministry.
The deal also calls for Thailand, after the ceasefire has held for 72
hours, to repatriate 18 Cambodian soldiers it has held as prisoners
since earlier fighting in July. Their release has been a major demand of
the Cambodian side.
Defense ministers met at the border to sign the agreement
The agreement was signed by the countries’ defense ministers, Cambodia’s
Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Nattaphon Narkphanit, at a checkpoint on their
border. It followed three-day lower-level talks by military officials.
It declares that the sides are committed to an earlier ceasefire that
ended five days of fighting in July and follow-up agreements, and
includes commitments to 16 de-escalation and implementation measures.
The original July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through
by pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold
trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized
in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump
attended.
Despite those deals, the countries carried on a bitter propaganda war
and minor cross-border violence continued, escalating in early December
to widespread heavy fighting.
Civilians bore the brunt of the fighting
Thailand has lost 26 soldiers and one civilian as a direct result of the
combat since Dec. 7, according to officials. Thailand has also reported
44 civilian deaths.
Cambodia hasn’t issued an official figure on military casualties, but
says that 30 civilians have been killed and 90 injured. Hundreds of
thousands of people have been evacuated on both sides of the border.
“Today’s ceasefire also paves the way for the displaced people who are
living in the border areas to be able to return to their homes, work in
the fields, and even allow their children to be able to return to
schools and resume their studies,” Cambodia's Defense Minister Tea Seiha
told reporters after the signing.
Each side blamed the other for initiating the fighting and claimed to be
acting in self-defense.
The agreement also calls on both sides to adhere to international
agreements against deploying land mines, a major concern of Thailand.
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In this photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Cambodian
Defense Minister Tea Seiha, left, stands with Thai Defense Minister
Nattaphon Narkphanit, right, at the General Border Committee Meeting
in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AKP via
AP)
Thai soldiers along the border have been wounded in at least nine
incidents this year by what they said were newly planted Cambodian
mines. Cambodia says the mines were left over from decades of civil war
that ended in the late 1990s.
Another clause says the two sides “agree to refrain from disseminating
false information or fake news.”
The agreement also says previously established measures to demarcate the
border will be resumed. The sides also agreed to cooperate in
suppressing transnational crimes. That's primarily a reference to online
scams perpetrated by organized crime that have bilked victims around the
world of billions of dollars each year. Cambodia is a center for such
criminal enterprises.
Malaysia's leader hails the agreement
Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was instrumental in putting
together the original ceasefire, was quick to welcome the new agreement,
posting on X that it “reflects a shared recognition that restraint is
required, above all in the interest of civilians.”
He said its provisions for implementation “provide a basis for
stability, and I am hopeful that both sides will carry them out
faithfully.”
Many clauses similar to those in Saturday's agreement were included in
October's ceasefire document, and were open to various interpretations
and generally honored only in part. These included provisions concerning
land mines and the Cambodian prisoners.
The similar fragility of the new agreement was underlined by Thailand’s
Defense Ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri in a news briefing after
Saturday's signing. He said that the safe return of civilians to their
homes would indicate the situation had stabilized enough to allow the
repatriation of the captured Cambodian soldiers.
“However if the ceasefire does not materialize, this would indicate a
lack of sincerity on the Cambodian side to create sure peace,” he said.
"Therefore, the 72- hour ceasefire beginning today is not an act of
trust nor unconditional acceptance but a time frame to tangibly prove
whether Cambodia can truly cease the use of weapons, provocations and
threats in the area.”
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Associated Press writer Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,
contributed to this report.
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