President Donald Trump said on Friday (November 14, 2025) that he had successfully eased hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand, saying that he’d been able to preserve a previous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire that had appeared to be breaking down.

“I stopped a war just today,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for the weekend. He said his actions were made possible by his willingness to impose steep tariffs on countries around the world, which he has argued gives the US great leverage on trade and diplomatic leverage.

The President said he’d spoken to the Prime Ministers of both countries by phone and now, “They’re doing great. They were not doing great.” He said the conversations left him believing, “I think they’re going to be fine.”

Territorial disputes over exactly where the border lies between the Southeast Asian neighbours led to five days of armed conflict in late July that killed dozens of soldiers and civilians.

Mr. Trump threatened to withhold trade privileges from the two countries unless they stopped fighting, helping to broker a temporary halt to the conflict. The pact was then reaffirmed in greater detail last month, when Trump attended an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit meeting in Malaysia.

The ceasefire seemed on the verge of falling apart this week, however, when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said a villager was killed after shooting broke out along his country’s border with Thailand.

Mr. Manet said one civilian was killed and three others injured when Thai troops opened fire on civilians residing in the area of Prey Chan in Cambodia’s northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey. The same village was the site of a violent but not lethal confrontation in September between Thai security personnel and Cambodian villagers.

The Thai military said that the latest incident began when Cambodian soldiers allegedly fired into a district in Thailand’s eastern province of Sa Kaeo. No Thai casualties were reported.

Thailand and Cambodia have a history of enmity going back centuries, when they were warring empires. Their competing territorial claims stem largely from a 1907 map drawn when Cambodia was under French colonial rule, which Thailand has argued is inaccurate.

The ceasefire does not spell out a path to resolve the underlying basis of the dispute, the longstanding differences over where the border should run.

China expressed support for Thailand and Cambodia in resolving their border dispute on Thursday (August 14, 2025) and offered to provide assistance based on the wishes of both nations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Mr. Wang said China supports the Southeast Asian countries in strengthening dialogue and eliminating misunderstandings, adding he hoped they would rebuild mutual trust and restore friendship, according to statements from his Ministry.

He met his Thai and Cambodian counterparts separately during the day but also convened a three-way conversation on the sidelines of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, readouts of the three meetings showed.

In their “friendly and candid communication”, Mr. Wang said China hoped that the two countries could reopen border crossings as soon as possible, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

China also promised support and assistance for landmine clearance in the border areas of Cambodia and Thailand, and the three ministers agreed to continue communication in a “flexible manner”, the Chinese statement added.

Thailand and Cambodia have wrangled for decades over border territory and a border conflict erupted last month after the killing of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish late in May. It was the worst fighting in more than a decade and only eased after a ceasefire was struck in late July.

In a bilateral meeting with Thailand’s Maris, Mr. Wang spoke about China’s readiness to accelerate a China-Thailand railway construction project, encourage more investments from Chinese enterprises in Thailand and ensure the stability of the regional production and supply chain. It is hoped that Thailand will provide more policy support and facilitation for Chinese enterprises, he told his Thai counterpart.

While meeting with Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, Mr. Wang sounded support for Cambodia maintaining political stability, and said China is appreciative of the country’s crackdown on online gambling and wire fraud.

He also expressed hopes that Cambodia will continue strong measures for joint efforts in the region against cross-border criminal activities.