Thailand and Cambodia fire rockets at each other.Image: keystone
The Cambodian government is calling for UN Security Council intervention in the renewed border conflict with Thailand.
Dec 11, 2025, 7:14 amDec 11, 2025, 7:14 am
The United Nations’ most powerful body should call on the Thai military to “immediately stop all attacks” and send an independent UN fact-finding mission to investigate the situation on site. This is what it says in a letter from the Cambodian UN ambassador to the chairmanship of the Security Council. It criticizes the Thai military operations as a “serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
The conflict between the two neighboring Southeast Asian countries, which had apparently been pacified in the meantime, flared up again last week. Since Sunday, both sides have accused each other of first violating a ceasefire in the area along the approximately 800-kilometer-long shared border. Since then, ongoing fighting has cost several lives and forced over 500,000 residents of the region to flee.
Trump wants to talk to parties to the conflict
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump announced that he had planned a telephone call with both sides for this Thursday, after initially promising this for Wednesday. It remained unclear whether it was one conversation or several. The specific participants were also not named. Trump told reporters at the White House that he believes he can get the two countries to stop fighting.
After heavy fighting, the two neighboring countries signed a ceasefire agreement in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur at the end of October in the presence of Trump. But in November the agreed ceasefire was initially suspended after another incident at the border. The situation has worsened again since Sunday.
The roots of the conflict lie in the colonial period, when France determined the border. The governments of both neighboring countries interpret this demarcation differently. At the center of the dispute is a centuries-old temple that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. Both the temple and the surrounding area are claimed by Thailand and Cambodia. There have been several battles between the armed forces of both countries in the past. (sda/dpa)