Thailand and Cambodia agree ceasefire after weeks of deadly clashes
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 December 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A ceasefire has come into force along the border between Thailand and Cambodia, where weeks of clashes have forced a million people from their homes. The seventy- two- hour truce was agreed by the two countries' defence ministers following extensive diplomacy by Chinese officials.
Also in the programme: Saudi Arabia's defence minister has warned the main separatist movement in southern Yemen to withdraw from territory it's recently captured in two provinces, amid rising tensions in the area; Ukraine says overnight Russian air strikes in the capital Kyiv have injured at least eight people and caused power cuts; and ahead of the winter games in Italy - we meet Slovenia's world champion ski-jumpers targeting Olympic gold.
(Photo:Cambodia's Defence Minister Tea Seiha and Thailand's Defence Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit after the ceasefire was agreed during a special meeting at a border checkpoint in Chanthaburi province, Thailand. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello, welcome to the programme. This is News Hour from the BBC World Service, and it's coming to you live from London. |
| 0:15.8 | My name's Paul Henley. First, trying to establish peace along the hotly disputed border between Thailand and |
| 0:23.1 | Cambodia is proving a difficult stop-start process, despite President Trump's claim that he |
| 0:28.5 | personally sorted it out. The latest ceasefire to have been established comes after pressure from |
| 0:33.9 | China. It freezes front lines and bans military reinforcements for at least 72 hours |
| 0:40.2 | in a zone where fighting has driven more than a million people, Cambodians and Thais, out of |
| 0:45.2 | their homes. The Thai Defence Minister described this deal as a period to test Cambodia's |
| 0:51.4 | sincerity. If it held, almost all those displaced would begin a staged return. |
| 0:58.2 | Surasant Kong-Siri, who is the Thai Defence Ministry spokesman, said this. |
| 1:03.9 | The most important point in this joint statement is that both sides shall maintain their current troop levels in the area, |
| 1:12.9 | with no movement or reinforcement towards one another, |
| 1:16.6 | and no renew attacks or provocations. |
| 1:20.7 | The C-spire will be monitored and observed for 72 hours |
| 1:24.8 | to confirm that it is real and continuous. |
| 1:28.3 | Well, the news will come as a relief to hundreds of thousands of people |
| 1:31.4 | living in camps in the border regions. |
| 1:34.4 | The fighting has affected education, including at one school in northwestern Cambodia, |
| 1:39.0 | that's taken in 13 refugee students. |
| 1:41.6 | One of them is Chui Sremom. |
| 1:49.0 | I'm not going to... refugee students, one of them is Chui Sremom. Here Chui is saying how the fighting affected her studies |
| 1:52.1 | and affected the fact that she has important exams coming up soon |
... |
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