Thailand-Cambodia fighting continues after Trump says countries agree to ceasefire
Clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces continued early Saturday after US President Donald Trump said the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire.
Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he told the US president that a ceasefire would only be possible if Cambodia withdraws all its forces and removes mines.
“Thailand will continue to carry out military actions until it feels no more harm and threat to our land and people. I want to make this clear. Our actions this morning were already obvious,” he said on social media.
The shelling continued throughout the night as Thai forces attempted to capture some vantage points along the border. At least 21 people have died in the renewed fighting and 700,000 people have been evacuated from both sides.
Trump claimed earlier in the week that he could stop the conflict between Thai and Cambodian forces on Monday by simply picking up the phone.
After meeting with both prime ministers on Friday night, he wrote on social media that the two countries agreed to “effectively stop shooting this evening” and return to the agreement they signed in front of the US president in October.
“Both countries are ready for peace,” he wrote.
But Anutin said he told Trump that Thailand was not the aggressor and that Cambodia needed to show that it had withdrawn its forces and removed border mines before a ceasefire was possible. “They have to show it to us first,” he said.
As in July, there was no mention of the tariffs being used as leverage to force the two sides to leave.
Thailand has warned the US not to link the conflict to trade.
On Saturday, Cambodia reported coming under more Thai airstrikes.
“On December 13, 2025, the Thai military used two F-16 fighter jets to drop seven bombs on a number of targets,” the Cambodian defense ministry said in an X post.
“Thai military aircraft have not stopped bombing yet,” the statement said.
The Thai military also confirmed that clashes were continuing.
The long-running border dispute escalated further on July 24 when Cambodia launched a barrage of rockets against Thailand, which responded with airstrikes.
Both countries blamed each other for launching the attacks.
After days of intense fighting that left dozens dead, neighboring Southeast Asian countries agreed to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” brokered by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. This was formalized at a ceremony presided over by the US president in Malaysia in October.
However, both sides continued to make accusations of ceasefire violations; Thailand has released evidence that Cambodian troops laid mines that caused seven Thai soldiers to lose limbs. Cambodia says the mines are left over from a civil war in the 1980s.
Tensions have continued to rise since then.
Thailand launched airstrikes in Cambodia this week after two of its soldiers were injured in a clash last Sunday. Cambodia responded with rocket bombardment. The clashes affected six provinces in northeastern Thailand and six provinces in northern and northwestern Cambodia.
The two countries have been squabbling over their 800 km land border for more than a century. The border was drawn by French cartographers in 1907, when France was the colonial ruler of Cambodia.
