Thailand and Cambodia Pause Border War with 72-Hour Cease Fire

Thailand and Cambodia Pause Border War with 72-Hour Cease Fire

Thailand and Cambodia officials have announced that they have agreed to a cease-fire intended to halt weeks of intense fighting along their shared border, which we have been following at Legal Insurrection.

One of the key provisions is tied to a 72‑hour ceasefire, which must hold before prisoner releases occur.

The surprise announcement followed two days of tense negotiations between the two countries’ militaries and came amid growing pressure from the United States and China to halt the fighting. The cease-fire is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. on Saturday, according to Cambodian state television.

As part of the deal, Thailand said that it would release 18 Cambodian soldiers who were detained in July during an earlier round of armed conflict between the two countries, once the 72-hour cease-fire period had passed. Both nations also said they would commit to clearing land mines along their shared border, which have figured prominently in the recent clashes.

At a news conference after the cease-fire was announced, Nattaphon Narkphanit, the Thai defense minister, described the 72-hour truce as a testing period to evaluate whether a more enduring peace could begin.

The United States welcomes the announcement from Cambodia and Thailand on reaching a ceasefire following the General Border Committee meeting. We urge both countries to immediately honor this commitment and fully implement the terms of the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords.

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) December 27, 2025

The agreement also included a provision against violations of airspace.

In addition to ending fighting, the agreement calls for no further military movements by either side and no violations of either side’s airspace for military purposes.

Only Thailand had employed airstrikes in the fighting, hitting sites in Cambodia as recently as Saturday morning according to the country’s defense ministry.

The ceasefire ends 20 days of fighting that have claimed over 100 lives.

The clashes were re-ignited in early December after a breakdown in a ‍ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had helped broker to halt a previous round of fighting.

For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817 kilometer ‌land border — a dispute that has occasionally exploded into skirmishes and fighting.

The latest ceasefire would be monitored by an observer team from the Association of Southeast Asian ​Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc as well as ‌direct coordination between both countries, Natthaphon said.

Hopefully, 2026 will begin with that peace agreement being more permanent than the last one.

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