The Royal Thai Army has reported that one Thai soldier was killed and eight others were injured.Image: EPA
There is no longer any talk of an intention for peace: Live shooting is again taking place on the borders of neighboring Southeast Asian countries. According to an expert, the situation could escalate further.
December 9, 2025, 5:04 p.mDecember 9, 2025, 5:04 p.m
Only around six weeks after a ceasefire agreement was signed between Thailand and Cambodia, violence on their shared border has escalated completely. Fierce fighting raged on Tuesday in many places along the 800-kilometer-long border of Southeast Asian countries. Tens of thousands of residents of the border area on both sides had to flee to shelters or safer parts of the country.
Both countries attacked each other with soldiers on the ground and sometimes with the use of heavy artillery. According to local media, the Thai air force carried out further attacks on suspected Cambodian army positions. The aim is to decimate the neighboring country’s military in the long term, the Bangkok Post newspaper quoted the military’s chief of staff, Chaiyaphreuk Duangpraphat, as saying. This is intended to ensure the safety of future generations in Thailand.
Cambodian troops took up positions near the front line during fighting with Thai forces over a disputed border area.Image: EPA
Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen said they initially exercised restraint in order to respect the ceasefire agreed on October 26. But now there is fighting to defend oneself, with “trenches and weapons of all kinds”.
Further escalation is conceivable
The current rhetoric from Bangkok suggests a further escalation of the situation, said the head of the Asia research group at the Science and Politics Foundation (SWP), Felix Heiduk, to the German Press Agency. However, the fight is an unequal one: “Cambodia’s army is only a third the size of Thailand’s army, the military budget is much smaller and the country has no air force at all,” said the expert from the Berlin-based foundation. Whether Thailand will use its military superiority, for example to annex areas, is pure speculation. There are no public statements about this yet.
In any case, the main victims of the conflict are the civilian population on both sides. Hundreds of thousands have been driven out of their villages in the border area. Cross-border trade and labor migration from Cambodia to Thailand, which is important for both countries, are also disrupted, said Heiduk. “From an economic perspective, this conflict makes no sense for either country.”
Thai evacuees who fled their homes after clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops rest at an evacuation center in Surin province, Thailand, Dec. 9, 2025.Image: keystone
Politically, however, the escalation presents an opportunity for Thailand’s interim Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. According to Heiduk, he is likely to call new elections for the beginning of 2026 in December: “In surveys, he, who comes from the conservative, military-friendly camp, is lagging behind left-wing, progressive forces. He could certainly use the border conflict to portray himself domestically as a defender of Thai sovereignty.
Injured and dead on both sides
Cambodia and Thailand have been accusing each other since Sunday of being the first to violate a ceasefire in the border area. According to the Defense Ministry, at least seven civilians have died and at least 20 have been injured in Cambodia since Monday. Thai media, citing the military, reported the deaths of four soldiers.
Thai Navy Vessel Supports Border Operation to Reclaim Encroached Territory in Trat
HTMS Thepya provided artillery support for ground forces on December 9 to reclaim an area in Ban Nong Ri, Mueang District, Trat Province, where three houses had been built on Thai territory,… pic.twitter.com/NlRJoo8RMg
— Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) December 9, 2025
The Thai news portal “Khaosod” reported on the X platform, citing the military, of violent Cambodian attacks on Thai territory, including with mortars and artillery. According to the Bangkok Post, the Thai navy was also deployed to push Cambodian soldiers out of the border area they occupied in Trat province.
Neither the information from Phnom Penh nor Bangkok could initially be independently verified.
Agreement “content very thin”
The Foreign Office warns against traveling to the immediate border area and also advises against traveling to provinces near the border. Tourists are advised to register on the Federal Foreign Office’s crisis preparedness list.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) applauds as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and U.S. President Donald Trump sign a ceasefire agreement, Oct. 26, 2025.Image: keystone
After heavy fighting in July, the neighboring countries signed a declaration for a path towards peace at the Asean summit in Malaysia at the end of October in the presence of US President Donald Trump. But the agreed ceasefire was suspended in November after another incident at the border. Heiduk said that the agreement was “very thin in terms of content” and accompanied by mutual mistrust.
The economic pressure alone from Trump’s threat of higher tariffs and his presentation as a peacemaker were not enough to initiate a real peace process.
Problematic demarcation
The roots of the conflict lie in the colonial period at the beginning of the 20th century, when France determined the border, but there were deviations in the maps published. Thailand – the then Kingdom of Siam – felt disadvantaged because some important temple complexes from the time of the Khmer Empire were on the side of French Indochina, explained expert Heiduk.
A Cambodian temple guard stands in front of the Preah Vihear temple.Image: AP
The Hindu temple Prasat Preah Vihear in particular has become the focus of the dispute. Both countries claim the surrounding area of the site on the border, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. There have been repeated clashes between the armed forces of both countries in the past, which makes the region unsafe – also for the many pilgrims who want to visit the site dedicated to the god Shiva. (dpa) (aargauerzeitung.ch) (val)