Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday agreed to halt weeks of intense border clashes that marked the worst fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours in years, following negotiations between their defence ministers.
The ceasefire, which takes effect at noon local time (0500 GMT), was announced in a joint statement by Thai Defence Minister Natthaphon Nakrphanit and his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Seiha. Both sides agreed to maintain current troop deployments and refrain from further military movement along the disputed frontier.
“Both sides agree to maintain current troop deployments without further movement,” the joint statement said, warning that any reinforcement could escalate tensions and undermine long-term efforts to resolve the conflict. The statement was released by Cambodia’s Defence Ministry on social media.
The agreement ends nearly 20 days of fighting that involved artillery barrages, rocket exchanges and fighter jet sorties, and has left at least 101 people dead. More than half a million civilians have been displaced on both sides of the border, according to officials.
The latest clashes reignited in early December after the collapse of an earlier ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who currently chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Thailand and Cambodia have disputed sovereignty over several undemarcated sections of their 817-kilometre land border for more than a century. While the disagreements have often remained dormant, they have periodically erupted into violent confrontations.
Under the new agreement, the ceasefire will be monitored by an observer team from ASEAN, alongside direct coordination between the armed forces of both countries. Natthaphon said military and political leaders on both sides would maintain direct communication to prevent misunderstandings.
“At the policy level, there will be direct communication between the minister of defence and chief of the armed forces of both sides,” Natthaphon told reporters following the signing of the agreement.
Tensions between the two countries had already flared earlier this year. In July, fighting along parts of the frontier lasted five days, killing at least 48 people and displacing about 300,000 before international mediation helped secure a temporary truce.
That ceasefire later collapsed, with both sides accusing each other of actions that triggered renewed hostilities. Since early December, fighting expanded beyond forested areas near the Lao border to coastal provinces along the Gulf of Thailand, complicating diplomatic efforts.
Attempts by both Anwar and Trump to broker another truce initially failed as hostilities intensified. Momentum toward the latest ceasefire followed a special meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week, as well as three days of direct talks at a border checkpoint between Thai and Cambodian officials.
In their joint statement, the defence ministers also agreed to facilitate the return of civilians displaced by the fighting and pledged that neither side would use force against civilian populations in affected areas.
Thailand further agreed to return 18 Cambodian soldiers taken into custody during the July clashes, provided the ceasefire is fully observed for at least 72 hours, according to the terms of the deal.
However, the agreement does not alter or suspend ongoing border demarcation efforts. The statement said disputes over the frontier would continue to be addressed through existing bilateral mechanisms, underscoring that the ceasefire does not resolve the underlying territorial disagreements.
Thailand’s Air Chief Marshal Prapas Sornjaidee stressed that the conflict should not be seen as a reflection of relations between ordinary citizens of both countries.
“War and clashes don’t make the two countries or the two people happy,” he told reporters. “I want to stress that the Thai people and the Cambodian people are not in conflict with each other.”