Even as the West-backed Israeli genocide against Palestine grinds on bloodily, attention in Asia has turned eastward to the sudden outbreak of border clashes between two predominantly Buddhist, neighbouring nations – Cambodia and Thailand. The fighting that broke out last Thursday has geopolitics observers wondering how much this clash exposes a serious rift in ASEAN, hitherto one of the Global South’s most prosperous and unified regional blocs.
The armed clashes between the two militaries that broke out on July 24 is yet continuing, with about 50 persons, both civilian and military, reported dead so far and close to 200,000 civilians displaced in the mutual border area in a remote rural corner of these two countries. The clashes mainly involve ground troops along with armoured units and frequent artillery exchanges but Thailand has deployed a few sorties of its very modern US-built F-16 jets and Cambodia, the militarily weaker nation by far, has effectively used drones and its few helicopters.
It is noteworthy that this clash pits Thailand, the far bigger nation, population and territory-wise, much wealthier and, far more militarily powerful and, a long-time staunch United States ally, against Cambodia, an equally long-time and staunch geopolitical ‘friend’ of China.
Things get even more interesting when it is acknowledged that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), one of the world’s most successful regional groupings, has, in recent years, become China’s biggest trading partner.
French colonialism
Tragically, the clash is entirely the result of old European colonial manoeuvrings, in this case, colonial France, when it occupied what it patronisingly called ‘French Indo-China’ which comprised French dominated local kingdoms in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The local kingdoms had their own boundaries which, due to the French invasion, were overrun and the territories re-demarcated according to French colonial interests.
Thus the French colonial administration did territorial changes in dealings with neighbouring local kingdoms including Thai kingdoms. The clash last week was about the Preah Vihear (Priya Vihar = Sacred Shrine) which belongs to Cambodia but in the pre-colonial belonged to the neighbouring Thai kingdom.
When the French withdrew, they left behind territories to local national leaderships without proper demarcations, enabling the more powerful local entities grab territory previously held by their neighbours.
The Preah Vihear is one of number of ancient temples, some Hindu and others Buddhist shrines, in the border territories of remote rural north-west Cambodia that adjoin similarly remote rural north-east Thailand. They are some of the areas left improperly demarcated and have been disputed by the two countries since the French decolonisation.
The disputes are rooted in the colonial-era treaties of 1904–1907 between the independent Kingdom of Siyam and the French-controlled Kingdom of Cambodia. The dispute caused tension between the two countries in 1962 when the International Court of Justice made a ruling on the Preah Vihear Temple. Tensions flared again in 2008–2011.
In February 2025 they worsened even more when troops from Thailand prevented pilgrims from Cambodia from singing the Cambodian national anthem at the nearby Prasat Ta Muen Thom temple.In May, an armed clash broke out in neighbouring Chong Bok.
Following a landmine incident that injured five Thai soldiers on the disputed border in Ubon Ratchathani province in the same larger region, Thailand recalled its Ambassador from Cambodia and expelled Cambodia’s envoy.
Hindu
The ancient Preah Vihear temple which is the focal point in the current skirmishes is an ancient Hindu shrine patronised by Thai royalty over centuries. The first temple on the site was built in the early 9th century and dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva in his manifestations as the mountain gods Sikharesvara and Bhadresvara.
The current ruins date from the 10th century.
Today, some reconstruction can be seen from the reigns of the Khmer kings Suryavarman I and Suryavarman II (1113–1150). In the wake of the decline of Hinduism in the region, the site was converted to use by Buddhists which is today the predominant religion in all these neighbouring states, namely, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.
In that remote border zone, there are several such ancient temples and all of them are subject to dispute. Fighting broke out simultaneously at Preah Vihear and also Ta Moan Thom Temple, located in a border area in northwestern Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
Fighting then spread to at least six areas along the frontier. Thailand’s military closed border crossings on the entire stretch of frontier between the two countries. The fighting initially made some 40,000 civilians from more than 80 villages flee to safer areas. By yesterday in Thailand alone some 140,000 have been displaced.
Thailand and Cambodia are wholly unevenly matched in both size as well as in level of economic development. Cambodia’s population is a mere 17,424,000, compared with Thailand’s 71,702,000.
In terms of economy, Thailand with a GDP of US $505Billion ranked the 26th largest economy in the world, while Cambodia ranked 110th with just $24.5 billion.
Bangkok’s trade partners are led by military ally, United States, followed by China, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia in that order. Phnom Penh’s principal trade partner, by far, is China, with a total bilateral trade value of $9.27 billion. China is followed by United States, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.
Thailand evolved as a stable economy (run by successive corrupt military dictatorships) ever since World War 2 and was pampered by the US as a base area in its long war against communist Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In comparison was abandoned by colonial France only to be drawn into America’s war against communism in Indo-China. Thus along with Vietnam and Laos, Cambodia was bombed to bits by the US and its Australian and New Zealand allies for nearly two decades until Washington’s ignominious Afghanistan-style retreat in 1975.
Torn apart by a civil war that followed the Vietnam war, Cambodia has remained handicapped by political instability. This has resulted in very slow development.
Black economy
Cambodia’s economy is not doing well, and is currently notorious for a larger ‘black’ economy as opposed to legal economic activity. Illicit businesses thrive, including casinos, human trafficking, and internet scam centres which according to some estimates account for up to 40 percent of GDP. Sri Lankans too have been victimised by being illegally trafficked workers for the scam centres.
Thailand has the most powerful armed forces currently in ASEAN, thanks to its booming economy and US assistance. Washington sees Bangkok as one of its major allies outside NATO, although military ties are not as strong as with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and The Philippines.
However, in terms of military and economic power, Indonesia will soon overtake Thailand as ASEAN’s big power.
More importantly, America’s unilateralist geopolitics in the recent decade as seen ASEAN becoming more comfortable with neighbouring China rather than the US. Certainly The Philippines and Thailand remain loyal to the US for now. However, the tightening economic ties and corollary benefits arising from China’s far more consistent geopolitics and friendlier business dealings and multilateral diplomacy has helped draw ASEAN closer to the Asian great power.
Even in this latest bilateral clash, many observers, while noting the seemingly divergent alignments of Phnom Penh with Beijing and Bangkok with Washington, are also quick to note that Uncle Sam no longer enjoys that same familiarity with ASEAN as it once did in the early Cold War days when the Vietnam war raged and the spectre of Communism haunted South East Asia.
Today even that Communism is a non-aggressive hybrid form that no longer intimidates. Certainly, in war, Cambodia is no match for Thailand which boasts F-16 fighter jets while Cambodia has a handful of helicopters at best.
Many analysts suspect that Beijing is likely to play the main quiet mediatory role in resolving this minor clash of national egos, since there are no major strategic interests at play between these two states – at least not in that particular stretch of their mutual border.
