A truce agreement between Thailand and Cambodia came into effect in the early hours of Tuesday (July 29, 2025), testing whether it will halt five days of open combat that have engulfed their jungle-clad frontier. A truce agreement is a formal arrangement between opposing parties in a conflict to temporarily stop fighting, usually for a specific period of time and in a specific area.
What Is Truce Agreement Between Thailand & Cambodia?
Why In News
- A truce agreement between Thailand and Cambodia came into effect in the early hours of Tuesday (July 29, 2025), testing whether it will halt five days of open combat that have engulfed their jungle-clad frontier.
What is Truce Agreement
- A truce agreement is a formal arrangement between opposing parties in a conflict to temporarily stop fighting, usually for a specific period of time and in a specific area. It does not end the war or conflict permanently, but rather serves as a pause in hostilities so that negotiations, humanitarian aid, or peace talks can take place.
Agreement
- Both sides agreed an “unconditional” ceasefire would start at midnight on Monday to end battling over a smattering of ancient temples in disputed zones along their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border.
- Cambodia’s Samraong city — 20 kilometres from the border — an AFP journalist heard a steady drumbeat of artillery strikes throughout Monday, before blast sounds stopped in the 30 minutes leading up to midnight, with the lull continuing for 30 minutes after. Elsewhere, Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, which has seen some of the most intense combat, was still quiet 20 minutes after the truce was scheduled to begin, its governor Kim Rithy said on Facebook.
- Jets, rockets and artillery have killed at least 38 people since Thursday and displaced nearly 300,000 more — prompting intervention from U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend.
- The flare-up was the deadliest since violence raged sporadically from 2008-2011 over the territory, claimed by both because of a vague demarcation made by Cambodia’s French colonial administrators in 1907. The peace deal is set to see military commanders from both sides meet at 07:00am (0000 GMT), before a cross-border committee is convened in Cambodia to further salve tensions on August 4.
Good Faith
- A joint statement from both countries, as well as Malaysia which hosted the peace talks, said the ceasefire was “a vital first step towards de-escalation and the restoration of peace and security”.
- A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Monday evening that “he urges both countries to respect the agreement fully and to create an environment conducive to addressing long-standing issues and achieving lasting peace”.
- Both sides are courting Mr. Trump for trade deals to avert his threat of eye-watering tariffs, and the US State Department said its officials had been “on the ground” to shepherd peace talks. The joint statement said China also had “active participation” in the talks, hosted by Malaysian Prime Minister and ASEAN bloc chair Anwar Ibrahim in his country’s administrative capital Putrajaya.
- Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet thanked Mr. Trump for his “decisive” support, while his counterpart, Thai acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, said it should be “carried out in good faith by both sides”.
- “If they say they’ll stop firing, they must stop completely,” said 43-year-old Thai evacuee Prapakarn Samruamjit in the city of Surin.
Post-Truce Tariff Deals
- On the eve of the talks, Thailand’s military said Cambodian snipers were camped in one of the contested temples, and accused Phnom Penh of surging troops along the border and hammering Thai territory with rockets.
- It said there was fighting at seven areas in the rural region, marked by a ridge of hills surrounded by wild jungle and fields where locals farm rubber and rice.
- Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn marked his 73rd birthday on Monday, but a notice in the country’s Royal Gazette said public celebrations scheduled for Bangkok’s Grand Palace had been cancelled amid the strife.
- Mr. Trump has threatened both countries with high levies in his global tariff blitz unless they agree to independent trade deals — but said he would “look forward” to signing them once “peace is at hand”.
- Each side had already agreed to a truce in principle, while accusing the other of undermining peace efforts and trading allegations about the use of cluster bombs and targeting of hospitals.
- Thailand says 11 of its soldiers and 14 civilians have been killed, while Cambodia has confirmed only eight civilian and five military deaths.
- However, the Thai military said it has returned the bodies of 12 Cambodian soldiers killed in combat.
- More than 138,000 people have fled Thailand’s border regions, while around 140,000 have been driven from their homes in Cambodia.
What Happens Now
- Preah Vihear temple is the most famous of many disputed sites at the Cambodia-Thailand border which hold cultural significance for both countries. Another such temple, called Prasat Ta Moan Thom by the Cambodians and Prasat Ta Muen Thom by the Thai, witnessed fighting during the recent hostilities.
- The ceasefire does not fundamentally address issues of cultural inheritance and ownership. It will take a lot more to bring down temperatures in both countries, and for them to permanently iron out the border issue.
- For the time being, however, analysts expect an uneasy peace to hold. This is primarily because of pressure from outside, notably China and the United States, both of whom oversaw the negotiations in Kuala Lumpur.
- In fact, the talks were held after US President Donald Trump set the two countries agreeing to a ceasefire as a precondition to their respective trade talks with Washington.
