Ceasefire halts Cambodia–Thailand border clash, but tensions remain
By Isabella Egerton
Diplomatic teams from Thailand and Cambodia are hoping to build on peace talks which led to a ceasefire between the two countries following the worst period of cross-border fighting in years. Cambodia has asked Thailand to release 20 of its soldiers captured during the clashes; one reportedly died in custody. Thai officials say the men will be freed once investigations are complete.
Both nations have agreed to continue talks, with defence attaché-level discussions scheduled for 04 August under ASEAN guidance, aimed at reinforcing trust and avoiding renewed fighting. Despite the truce, both countries continue to maintain troop deployments near the frontier, and nationalist rhetoric remains heated. The underlying territorial disputes—particularly around the Ta Muen Thom and Preah Vihear temples—remain unresolved, with neither side signalling any willingness to concede ground.
The ceasefire, declared on 28 July, brought an immediate halt to five days of intense fighting that killed at least 38 people, mostly civilians, and displaced more than 300,000 across both sides of the 800 km border. Flashpoints included the Ta Muen Thom and Preah Vihear areas, long-standing sources of contention.
Diplomatic mediation and enforcement of ceasefire
The truce was brokered in Putrajaya through Malaysian mediation, backed by China and the United States. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced a joint monitoring team to enforce the agreement. Washington exerted strong diplomatic pressure, with direct intervention from President Trump and threats of imposing 36 per cent tariffs on Cambodian and Thai exports helping secure a deal.
Although the ceasefire came into force at midnight on 28 July, both sides reported minor violations in the days that followed. Cambodian officials escorted foreign diplomats and military attachés to view damaged border checkpoints on Thursday, while Thai officials organised visits to unexploded bomb sites in Surin province on Friday.
Conflicting claims and humanitarian fallout
Thailand has accused Cambodia of deploying heavy artillery, BM-21 Grad rocket launchers, and laying new landmines, one of which reportedly injured a Thai soldier. Thailand’s UN ambassador described these actions as a “flagrant act of aggression” and a breach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, citing attacks on hospitals and evacuation centres. Cambodia has denied these allegations, accusing Thailand instead of using cluster munitions and bombing civilian roads inside Cambodian territory.
Both sides maintain they acted in self-defence. Cambodia fields a defence budget of around $1.3 billion and approximately 124,300 active personnel, compared to Thailand’s $5.7 billion budget and more than 360,000 troops.
Joshua Kurlantzick, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told NSN that Cambodia’s arsenal largely consists of older Chinese systems. “Cambodia used a wide range of Chinese-made machine guns, grenade launchers and rocket launchers among others. None of these were cutting edge, with the exception of the rocket launchers. Cambodia also had Chinese surface-to-air missiles, but none of the most sophisticated Chinese weaponry that was, say, provided to Pakistan during its clash with India. These were archaic and kind of cast-off Chinese weapons, as Cambodia is very poor and has no money for more sophisticated arms.”
By contrast, Thailand deployed advanced systems. “Thailand was using US-made F-16 Fighting Falcons and Swedish-made JAS 39 Gripens, Israeli Negev machine guns, domestically produced suicide drones and precision glide bombs, alongside a variety of tanks and armoured vehicles,” Kurlantzick added.
China has denied accusations of supplying new military equipment to Cambodia during the conflict. Senior Colonel Sheng Wei, deputy director of the Asia division at the PLA’s Office of International Military Cooperation, emphasised that all Chinese arms in Cambodia derive from historical cooperation projects. “Since tensions began along the Thailand–Cambodia border, China has not provided any military equipment to Cambodia for use against Thailand. Please do not believe fake news generated by malicious actors,” he told Thai officials in Beijing.
Kurlantzick noted that Beijing has long supplied lower-end weapons to Southeast Asian states, reserving more advanced systems for close partners such as Pakistan. “This is widely known in the region and Southeast Asian states aren’t shocked. The bigger issues come when Chinese technology appears superior to a regional power like India or to a global power like the US.”
