In this photo released by the Kampuchea News Agency (AKP), Cambodian Defense Minister T Siha, left, stands with Thai Defense Minister Natavon Narkvanit, right, at a General Boundary Commission meeting in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand on Saturday, December 27, 2025.
Associated Press/Kampuchea Press (AKP)
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Associated Press/Kampuchea Press (AKP)
BANGKOK – Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of armed fighting along their border over competing territorial claims. It went into effect at noon local time.
In addition to ending the fighting, the agreement calls for no further military movements by either side and no violation of either side’s airspace for military purposes.
Thailand was the only country to use air strikes in the fighting, hitting sites in Cambodia as of Saturday morning, according to the Cambodian Defense Ministry.
The agreement also calls for Thailand, after the ceasefire holds for 72 hours, to return 18 Cambodian soldiers it has held captive since the previous fighting in July. Their release was a major demand of the Cambodian side.
The agreement was signed by the two countries’ defense ministers, Thy Siha of Cambodia and Natavon Narkvanit of Thailand, at a checkpoint on their border after three days of lower-level talks by military officials as part of the already established General Boundary Commission.
The agreement declares that both sides are committed to the previous ceasefire that ended five days of fighting in July and follow-up agreements, and includes commitments to 16 de-escalation measures.
The original ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia in July and implemented under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade concessions unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia attended by Trump.
The Thai army fires artillery towards Cambodia, Friday, December 26, 2025, as seen from Thailand’s Sa Kaew province.
Wasun Wanishakorn/AFP
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Wasun Wanishakorn/AFP
Despite those deals, the two countries continued a bitter propaganda war and minor cross-border violence continued, escalating in early December into large-scale violent fighting.
Thailand has lost 26 soldiers and one civilian as a direct result of the fighting since December 7, according to officials. Thailand also reported 44 civilian deaths due to side effects of the situation.
Cambodia has not issued an official figure for military casualties, but says 30 civilians were killed and 90 wounded. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from affected areas on both sides of the border.
Each side blamed the other for starting the fight and claimed to be acting in self-defense.
The agreement also calls on both sides to adhere to international agreements against the deployment of landmines, which is a matter of great concern to Thailand. Thai soldiers have been injured along the border in at least nine incidents this year due to 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 states that the two sides “agree to refrain from spreading false information or fake news.”
The agreement also provides for the resumption of previously established border demarcation procedures, and the two sides also agree to cooperate in an attempt to suppress transnational crimes.
This is primarily a reference to online scams committed by organized crime that scam victims around the world out of billions of dollars every year. Cambodia is a hub for such criminal enterprises.