Cambodia, Thai Clashes Continue After Trump’s Ceasefire Claim
Fighting entered its seventh day across the two countries’ disputed border.
Thailand said it will continue military actions against Cambodia to eliminate “harm and threats,” stepping up rhetoric even after US President Donald Trump claimed to have brokered a new ceasefire.
Fighting entered its seventh day across the two countries’ disputed border. Thailand said Cambodia has been attacking and firing rockets into civilian areas since Friday night and into Saturday morning, prompting Thailand to respond by attacking military targets.
Cambodia said Thailand launched new air strikes on Saturday morning, with fighter jets dropping seven bombs in the western province of Pursat after Trump’s phone calls with the leaders on both sides.
The continued clashes are a stark contrast to Trump’s claim on Friday that Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to “cease all shooting” immediately and re-commit to the terms of the so-called Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords that he had them sign in October.
“Thailand will continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people,” Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a Facebook post on Saturday morning. “I want to make it clear. Our actions this morning already spoke.”
Neither Anutin nor Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet have mentioned agreeing to a ceasefire as claimed by Trump. On Saturday morning, Hun Manet said he had urged the US and Malaysia — which has acted as a mediator — to use satellite images to verify which side opened fire first in the renewed clash and that Cambodia was ready to cooperate.
The new clashes mark the most serious escalation since five days of intense fighting in July, which was ended by a ceasefire agreement Trump brokered when he threatened to halt trade talks with both countries. Trump reinforced the truce in October when he oversaw the signing of the Kuala Lumpur peace accord with the Thai and Cambodian prime ministers in Malaysia.
The agreement laid out steps for the two countries to start withdrawing troops and heavy weapons, with Thailand set to release 18 Cambodian soldiers in its custody. Last month, Thailand suspended the terms of the agreement after Thai soldiers were injured in a new landmine blast that the Thai army said was newly laid by Cambodia. Cambodia rejected the allegation.
Responding to Trump’s comment on Truth Social about the landmine Thai soldiers had stepped on that sparked the renewed clash, Anutin said that “it’s definitely not a roadside accident.”
Cambodian Minister of Information Neth Pheaktra said Thailand has provided “no verifiable evidence” linking any explosive device to Cambodian forces.
“We view these claims as a politically motivated attempt to justify Thailand’s suspension of the ceasefire and its ongoing incursions into Cambodian territory,” he said in an interview on Friday. Cambodia welcomes the US’s use of its “diplomatic weight to ensure Thailand returns to the Kuala Lumpur Peace Agreement it signed and ceases all violations along the border.”
Thailand and Cambodia share an 800-kilometer (500-mile) border. The conflict has left nearly two dozen dead and displaced more than half a million people since it began earlier this year.
