Cambodia Presses Thailand to Resume Border Survey, Calls for Return to Bilateral Mechanism

PHNOM PENH, Aug 7, 2026 (KPT) – Cambodia has urged Thailand to stop using what it described as unnecessary reasons to delay the resumption of border survey work, calling for both sides to return to agreed bilateral mechanisms to resolve outstanding issues. Government spokesman Pen Bona said Friday that Thailand should engage in the land border demarcation process in good faith and continue cooperation under the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding and the Joint Declaration signed on Dec 27, 2025. Bona said Cambodia believed the Joint Border Commission (JBC) was the appropriate mechanism to address border issues and achieve a peaceful and lasting solution. He stressed that progress on survey and demarcation was essential to allow displaced civilians to return home safely, with dignity and without obstruction, in line with international law and international community expectations. Since the second ceasefire took effect in December 2025, Cambodia’s JBC has sent 10 diplomatic notes to Thailand requesting special meetings and the deployment of Joint Survey Teams to resume field operations. Bona said Cambodia had also submitted 59 protest notes since what Phnom Penh described as a Thai military attack on July 24, 2025, to formally record objections and preserve its legal position. He added that such protests were important legal documents supporting future efforts to resolve sovereignty issues through international mechanisms. Cambodia’s requests for renewed JBC meetings and survey work were based on previous agreements, including minutes of a special JBC meeting in October 2025 and provisions of the General Border Committee’s Joint Declaration in December 2025.