២៦ កក្កដា ២០២៥ / 26 July 2025
Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia have exploded into open conflict, with heavy artillery and missile fire exchanged across the border. Thai airstrikes have killed at least 15 people, mostly civilians, and displaced over 1.3 lakh residents. UN urges calm as Cambodia backs an ASEAN ceasefire proposal that Thailand has since withdrawn support from.
The border question, which has been quiet in military terms since 2011, doesn't explain why the clashes have broken out now.
We need to look at what has changed this year.
The answer is that Thailand has lost patience with Cambodia over cyberscam compounds, which are having a disastrous effect on tourism in the region.
Chinese tourists, for example, understand the dangers of getting trafficked from Thailand into Cambodia or Myanmar.
China has leverage over both Thailand and Cambodia and Chinese mediation would the quickest way to resolve the dispute in the short term. But the region will only become more stable once cyber-scam compounds are cleared up in Cambodia and Myanmar.
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