Thailand, Cambodia sign new ceasefire agreement to end border fighting

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 violations for military purposes.

Only Thailand has carried out airstrikes, hitting sites in Cambodia as recently as Saturday morning, according to the Cambodian Defence 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.

Within hours of the signing, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry protested to Cambodia that a Thai soldier sustained a permanent disability when he stepped on an anti-personnel land mine, which it charged had been laid by Cambodian forces.

The agreement was signed by the countries’ defence ministers, Cambodia’s Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Nattaphon Narkphanit, at a border checkpoint. 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. 

The original July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from US President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalised 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.

Thailand has lost 26 soldiers and one civilian as a direct result of the combat since December 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 Defence Minister Tea Seiha told reporters after the signing. Each side blamed the other for initiating the fighting and claimed to be acting in self-defence.

The agreement also calls on both sides to adhere to international agreements against deploying land mines, a major concern of Thailand.  Thai soldiers along the border have been wounded in at least 10 incidents this year by what Thailand says were newly planted Cambodian mines. Cambodia says the mines were left over from decades of civil war that ended in the late 1990s.

Following the latest injury on Saturday, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry noted that the new agreement “includes key provisions on joint humanitarian demining operations to ensure the safety of military personnel and civilians in the border areas as soon as possible.” Another clause says the two sides “agree to refrain from disseminating false information or fake news.”  The agreement calls for a resumption of previous measures to demarcate the border. The sides also agreed to cooperate in suppressing transnational crimes.

That’s primarily a reference to online scams perpetrated by organised crime that have bilked victims around the world of billions of dollars each year. Cambodia is a centre for such criminal enterprises. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was instrumental in putting together the original

ceasefire, said the new agreement “reflects a shared recognition that restraint is required, above all in the interest of civilians.” Many clauses similar to those in Saturday’s agreement were included in October’s ceasefire document, and were open to various interpretations and generally honoured only in part.

These included provisions concerning land mines and the Cambodian prisoners. The fragility of the new agreement was underlined by Thailand’s Defence 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 stabilised enough to allow the repatriation of the captured Cambodian soldiers.

“However, if the ceasefire does not materialise, this would indicate a lack of sincerity on the Cambodian side to create a 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. Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha stands with Thai Defense Minister Nattaphon Narkphanit at the General Border Committee Meeting in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand .