Thailand Hands Over 18 Cambodian POWs as Border Ceasefire Shows Signs of Holding

Thai troops on Wednesday handed over 18 Cambodian soldiers they had held for nearly five months, the most visible sign so far that a fragile ceasefire along the two countries’ disputed border is taking hold after some of Southeast Asia’s heaviest interstate fighting in more than a decade.

Prisoner handover marks early ceasefire milestone

Shortly after 10 a.m. local time, the Cambodian soldiers crossed from Thailand’s Chanthaburi province into Cambodia’s Pailin province at the Prum International Border Checkpoint, ending around 155 days in Thai custody as prisoners of war. The handover, monitored by the International Committee of the Red Cross and observers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, fulfilled a key condition of a new truce that halted 20 days of airstrikes and artillery duels.

The ceasefire, which took effect at noon on Dec. 27, requires Thailand to free the 18 prisoners if the guns stay silent for 72 hours. By Wednesday, the troops had gone home and major hostilities had not resumed, offering cautious hope that both sides are prepared to pull back from a conflict that has killed more than 100 people and displaced more than half a million since early December.

Under the deal, both militaries agreed to stop using heavy weapons, keep their forces frozen in place along the 817-kilometer frontier, refrain from provocative moves or propaganda, and allow ASEAN monitors to verify incidents. Thai officials described the prisoner release as a “demonstration of goodwill and confidence-building” and said the men had been held in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

“The repatriation was conducted in line with international humanitarian principles and reflects Thailand’s commitment to peace and stability along our border,” Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Cambodia’s Defense Ministry hailed the homecoming as a step toward “peace, stability and full normalization of relations,” and emphasized that the government had pledged “no soldier will be left behind.” After crossing the frontier, the men were flown to Phnom Penh, where state television showed emotional reunions with relatives and a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Manet.

How the soldiers were captured — and why they became symbols

The 18 were part of a group of 20 Cambodian soldiers captured in late July during an earlier phase of the crisis. Two were transferred back to Cambodia soon afterward on medical grounds. Thai officials say the group crossed into what Bangkok considers Thai territory and acted in a threatening manner; Cambodian officials have insisted the troops were on Cambodian soil and approached Thai positions to offer post-battle greetings after a ceasefire was announced.

Regardless of how they were seized, the men quickly became political symbols. In Cambodia, state media portrayed them as heroes defending national territory, and officials repeatedly assured families that every prisoner would be returned. In Thailand, the government stressed that it was treating the men as lawful prisoners of war—complete with Red Cross access, family correspondence and medical checks—and used their detention as leverage in ceasefire and de-escalation talks.

A border dispute with a long history

The December ceasefire is the latest in a series of agreements that have struggled to stop violence along the border, much of it centered on rugged, undemarcated stretches near ancient temple sites such as Preah Vihear and Ta Muen Thom. A first truce in late July and a set of “peace accords” signed in Kuala Lumpur in October were brokered with Malaysian mediation and strong pressure from the United States, whose President Donald Trump publicly claimed credit and threatened to scale back trade benefits if fighting resumed.

Those arrangements collapsed in early December. Thai and Cambodian troops traded fire on Dec. 8 after what Bangkok said was a Cambodian attack that killed a Thai soldier and wounded others. Thailand responded with airstrikes by F-16 fighter jets and artillery barrages on Cambodian positions in Banteay Meanchey and near the Preah Vihear area. Cambodia answered with rocket fire, and clashes spread to more than a dozen points along the frontier.

By the time Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit of Thailand and his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Seiha, met at the border on Dec. 27 to sign the latest ceasefire, officials and aid agencies estimated that at least 101 people had been killed in this round of fighting alone and more than 500,000 civilians had been forced from their homes on both sides. Thai authorities reported dozens of military and civilian deaths and scores of wounded; Cambodia publicly confirmed at least 30 civilian deaths and about 90 injured but did not release full military casualty figures.

The December clashes followed earlier fighting in July that left at least 48 people dead and displaced more than 300,000, according to regional reporting. That phase was triggered when a Thai patrol in Ubon Ratchathani province struck a landmine, injuring five soldiers. Bangkok accused Cambodia of planting new mines; Phnom Penh said the explosives were remnants of Cambodia’s long civil war. The dispute over landmines has since become one of the most bitter points of contention, with Thailand threatening to raise the issue with bodies linked to the international treaty banning anti-personnel mines, to which Cambodia is a party but Thailand is not.

At the heart of the standoff is a frontier whose exact course remains disputed more than a century after colonial-era Franco-Siamese treaties first tried to fix it on paper. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple of Preah Vihear lies on Cambodian territory and ordered Thai forces to withdraw, then clarified in 2013 that Cambodia has sovereignty over the temple’s entire promontory. Yet stretches of surrounding high ground and other sites, including the Ta Muen Thom complex, remain contested, and previous fighting from 2008 to 2011 left dozens dead and thousands displaced.

Politics in Bangkok and Phnom Penh

Today’s conflict is unfolding in a markedly different political context. In Thailand, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul came to power in September after the Constitutional Court removed Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen during the earlier phase of the border crisis. Anutin has since dissolved parliament and is leading a caretaker government ahead of elections expected in early 2026.

Opponents in Bangkok accuse him of using a tough stance toward Cambodia to shore up support for his Bhumjaithai Party and appeal to nationalist voters. The long-running rivalry between the Shinawatra political camp and conservative-royalist factions, as well as personal ties between the Shinawatra and Hun families, has often spilled into cross-border rhetoric. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn’s father, publicly urged the Thai military last year to “teach Hun Sen a lesson,” adding to tensions.

In Cambodia, Hun Manet has led the government since August 2023, succeeding his father, who still exerts strong influence as Senate president and leader of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. The border fighting has allowed the younger Hun to emphasize his military credentials and present himself as a defender of the nation at a time when Cambodia faces economic challenges and Western criticism over political freedoms.

ASEAN’s credibility — and outside pressure

Beyond the two capitals, the ceasefire is also a test for ASEAN’s ability to manage conflicts among its members. Malaysia, as current chair of the bloc, has hosted multiple rounds of talks and pushed for the deployment of regional observers, a relatively rare role for an organization long wary of anything resembling peacekeeping. The monitors are tasked with documenting alleged violations and reporting through joint Thai-Cambodian border committees.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the Dec. 27 truce as “a positive step” toward easing civilian suffering and praised efforts by Malaysia, China and the United States to bring the sides back to the table. Beijing has backed ASEAN’s mediation and called the ceasefire evidence that “dialogue and consultation” can resolve disputes, while also seeking to limit instability along its periphery. Washington, for its part, has linked continued trade privileges for both countries to upholding ceasefire commitments and advancing measures such as demining and prisoner releases, U.S. officials have said.

The truce text also contains an unusual pledge by both governments to avoid spreading “false information” and inflammatory propaganda, a nod to the role of social media campaigns, doctored images and nationalist rhetoric in stoking public anger during the fighting. How strictly that provision will be enforced is unclear.

What comes next

For now, attention is turning to whether the calm can last long enough for displaced villagers to go home and for deminers to begin work in earnest. Thai and Cambodian officials say they plan to reopen additional crossings and restore cross-border trade if the ceasefire continues to hold.

Along the frontier, where farmers have fled shellfire and children are taught to recognize the shape of landmines, the return of 18 men may seem like a small development against the scale of the past year’s upheaval. But it is the first concrete dividend of a peace that exists mostly on paper—and a test case for whether two wary neighbors, and their regional partners, can keep a historic fault line from sliding back into war.