Shortly after arriving on 26 October 2025 in Malaysia, his first stop on the first Asian tour of his second Presidential term, President Donald Trump attended a signing ceremony, along with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of the host nation. On this momentous occasion, Prime Ministers Anutin Charnvirakul of Thailand and Hun Manet of Cambodia signed a Malaysian-brokered expanded ceasefire agreement, directly under Trump’s benevolent gaze. This “historic” peace deal, formally referred to as the ‘Joint Declaration by the Prime Ministers of Thailand and Cambodia on the outcomes of their meeting in Kuala Lumpur’, was concluded on the sidelines of the 47th annual summit of the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Malaysia’s capital city. Cambodia’s Prime Minister no doubt greatly pleased the US President by reminding the international peace broker that he had already nominated Trump for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The Thais seemed a little less enthusiastic, with Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow informing Tessa Wong of the BBC that the agreement was little more than “a pathway to peace.” Cambodia has consistently sought external intervention, including rulings from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to resolve the conflict, whereas the Thais appear to believe that the dispute needs to be settled by the two parties to the conflict without undue international involvement.
Under the latest agreement, Thailand will release eighteen Cambodian prisoners of war, detained after the fighting in July this year, and both Thailand and Cambodia will withdraw heavy weapons from, and undertake joint operations to remove landmines from the border area. Observers from ASEAN will be deployed to oversee the process of disengagement. After the deal was signed, Trump went on to sign a reciprocal trade agreement with Cambodia, agreed to a framework for a reciprocal trade agreement with Thailand, and also signed a trade agreement with Malaysia.
Thailand and Cambodia had already signed a Malaysian-mediated ceasefire agreement in July 2025, which has proved to be somewhat fragile. This was prompted by Trump’s threat of 36% tariffs on their exports after both countries engaged in a five-day border conflict, between 24 and 28 July, in which at least 38 people were killed and around 300,000 residents were temporarily displaced from border villages.
The 508-mile-long land border between Thailand and Cambodia, mapped out under the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 23 March 1907, has long been the scene of recurring territorial disputes. Under the treaty, the Kingdom of Siam (present-day Thailand) reluctantly ceded the provinces of Battambang, Siem Reap, and Sisophon to the French colony of Cambodia. Thailand has since claimed back several religious and culturally significant sites in Cambodia, including the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was awarded to Cambodia by the ICJ in 1962 in a decision that has been hotly contested by Thailand ever since. Even more controversially, the Buddhist temple complex at Angkor Wat, on the site of the ancient Khmer capital, has also been deemed to be Thai by some nationalists. An agreement upon a framework for joint survey and demarcation of the land border was signed in 2000, followed by another agreement on cooperation and resource sharing in disputed maritime areas the following year.
Early indications are that the recent agreement is just the first step in a process of creating “building blocks for lasting peace”, to quote the Thai Prime Minister, whereby Thailand and Cambodia can begin to settle their long-standing differences. Thai and Khmer nationalists will inevitably be required to make compromises in the interests of sustained peace in their region. Trump can, meanwhile, add another feather to his cap as he continues to claim that he has ended eight wars since his return to the White House in January 2025.
Ashis Banerjee