The disputed border area between Cambodia and Thailand is dotted with Hindu temples built on steep cliffs nearly 1,000 years ago. The dispute dates to a 1904 treaty between the kingdom of Siam and colonial France, which had conquered much of what is now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The two sides agreed to define their border as the natural watershed in the Dangrek mountains, but in 1908 French map-makers drew a line that put high ground and several historically important temples on France's side. The International Court of Justice awarded the largest temple, Preah Vihear, to Cambodia in 1962, citing the French map. Thai diplomats have disputed the quality of French cartography ever since.
The last remnants of the Khmers Rouges in the area surrendered in 1999. In 2008 Thai protesters broke into Preah Vihear, and three years of skirmishes left 34 dead. A second ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague quietened things down.
On July 24th 2025 gunfire erupted along the border at eight spots along a 200km frontier, including air strikes. After five days more than 40 were dead, hundreds injured and 300,000 civilians displaced—the worst violence in these highlands since the Cambodian civil war ended more than three decades earlier.
A ceasefire was agreed at a summit in Kuala Lumpur on July 28th, facilitated by Anwar Ibrahim, prime minister of Malaysia, which chairs ASEAN. Donald Trump threatened to halt trade negotiations with both countries until a truce was reached, and presided over a ceasefire deal signed at the ASEAN summit on October 26th. Hun Manet, Cambodia's prime minister, nominated Trump for the Nobel peace prize. Hun Sen, supposedly retired since 2023, continued to mouth off about Thailand on Facebook.
The ceasefire fell apart on December 8th 2025 with renewed Thai air strikes. By December 10th at least 19 more were dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees again on the move. Trump may have emboldened Cambodia by ignoring increasing evidence of its aggression against Thailand, an old American ally.
Cambodia concluded one of the first final reciprocal trade deals with Donald Trump, receiving a reciprocal tariff rate of 19% and exemptions for many exports. Lacking size and leverage, it rushed the agreement through, offering sweeping concessions: scrapping some tariffs, easing sanitary rules, agreeing to mirror American export controls against China and consulting America before signing digital-trade deals. America can terminate the pact if Cambodia strikes another deal it dislikes.
Cambodia's garment sector is its largest formal industry. Yet the United Nations estimates that the country's online-scam businesses make around $12.5bn a year—more than the garment trade. Cambodia has become the epicentre of a global cybercrime industry thought to make more than $500bn a year. Some 200,000 people from various countries are believed to work in Cambodia's scam factories, housed in compounds surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards; some workers participate voluntarily, others have been enslaved.
The scam industry's links reach deep into the state. Chen Zhi, chairman of Prince Group—which the Department of Justice alleges has become "one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organisations"—holds the royal title of Neak Oknha and has advised both Hun Sen and Hun Manet. In October 2025 America seized approximately $15bn in cryptocurrency from Chen Zhi; America and Britain also sanctioned Prince Group and froze London properties. The Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act, introduced in Congress, names Cambodia's deputy prime minister Sar Sokha as an investor in Jin Bei Group, a casino complex allegedly hosting scam compounds. Huione Group, linked to Hun Manet's cousin Hun To, has been described as behind "the largest-ever illicit online marketplace" and barred from the American financial system for laundering money for North Korean hackers. All named individuals and entities deny wrongdoing.
Cambodia also has potential oil and gas deposits in the Gulf of Thailand, subject to overlapping claims with Thailand.
Following decades of conflict Cambodia's countryside is blighted by landmines and unexploded ordnance. Some 4m-6m mines remain buried, concentrated in some of the country's poorest regions, where their presence stifles farming, deters investment and exacts a human toll. Since 1979 landmines have killed or injured 65,000 people. APOPO, a Belgian NGO, has trained African giant pouched rats ("HeroRATS") to detect explosives; deployed in Cambodia since 2015, the rats have cleared 40 square kilometres and located over 8,000 landmines. The programme's star, a rat named Magawa, detected more than 100 mines over six years and was the only rat ever awarded the PDSA Gold Medal for animal bravery. A 2.2-metre statue of Magawa was unveiled at Angkor Wat in April 2026—believed to be the first public monument dedicated to a life-saving rodent.
Let me put it this way: today is going to be a learning experience.