December 9, 2025 | 05:04 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Fighting intensified along the border between Thailand and Cambodia on Tuesday, with both sides promising to defend their sovereignty.
The fighting erupted after a Sunday-night skirmish during which a Thai soldier was killed.
The two sides have blamed each other for starting the latest clashes, which call into question the strength of a ceasefire brokered by Malaysia with support from US President Donald Trump.
What are Thailand and Cambodia saying about the latest clashes?
Cambodia's Senate President Hun Sen has vowed to fight Thailand as a second day of renewed clashes sent tens of thousands fleeing border areas.
In posts on Facebook and Telegram, Hun Sen said Cambodia held its fire on Monday but began shooting back overnight. He wrote that focusing on areas where Thai forces were advancing would allow Cambodia "to weaken and destroy enemy forces through counterattacks."
Hun Sen was Cambodia's longest-serving prime minister. Although succeeded by his son in 2023, he is still widely viewed as the country's de facto leader.
The Cambodian military said the fighting had killed seven civilians and wounded 20.
That violence left dozens dead on both sides and forced more than 100,000 civilians to evacuate.
The AFP news agency on Tuesday reported that another two Thai soldiers had been killed. It cited a Thai army statement as saying one was killed by indirect fire in Surin province and the other by a grenade near the Preah Vihear temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Thailand's army said Cambodian forces fired artillery into a village in Sa Kaeo province early Tuesday, causing no casualties. Thai officials also accused Cambodian troops of firing on Sunday and Monday, as both sides blame each other for starting the renewed fighting.
Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri told a press conference that the Thai navy was strengthening its position in eastern Thailand near the border with Cambodia.
How do Thailand and Cambodia's militaries compare?
Thailand holds overwhelming advantages in size, equipment, air power, and naval capability.
Cambodia
Defense budget: about $1.3 billion
Personnel: roughly 124,000 total
Army: around 75,000 troops, lightly equipped
No fighter planes
Limited armor and artillery
Navy: just over a dozen patrol vessels, small overall capability
Thailand
Defense budget: about $5.73 billion
Personnel: more than 360,000
Army: heavily equipped with hundreds of tanks and thousands of armored/artillery systems
Air force: over 100 combat aircraft, among Southeast Asia’s strongest
Navy: nearly 70,000 personnel, operates an aircraft carrier and several amphibious ships
What does this mean for the Trump-backed peace deal?
The two countries agreed ot a ceasefire brokered by Malaysia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with support from China and the US after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold trade benefits.
A later October agreement required both sides to pull back heavy weapons, curb hostile rhetoric, rebuild trust, and clear land mines. But little of that deal came to fruition. Instead, Cambodia and Thailand kept up a propaganda battle and saw sporadic cross-border violence.
Cambodia argues Thailand is still holding 18 Cambodian fighters captured just as the ceasefire took effect. Thailand counters that Cambodia has planted new land mines in contested areas, several of which have maimed Thai soldiers.
The border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia is decades old.
Both countries share an 800-kilometer (500-mile) border that stretches across sparsely inhabited regions.
Their competing territorial claims stem largely from a 1907 map drawn when Cambodia was under French colonial rule, which Thailand has argued is inaccurate.
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