Context: Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office after an ethics investigation over a leaked phone call with a senior Cambodian leader that followed a border row.
The leaked call has set off political turmoil in Thailand as Shinawatra faces growing dissatisfaction over her handling of the conflict.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Locations in News; Border Dispute between Thailand and Cambodia.
Border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia
- Thailand and Cambodia share around 800 kilometres of land border. The contesting claims stem largely from a 1907 map drawn under French colonial rule that was used to separate Cambodia from Thailand.
- Cambodia has been using the map as a reference to claim territory, while Thailand has argued the map is inaccurate.
- The most prominent and violent conflicts broke out around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple. In 1962, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded sovereignty over the area to Cambodia and that became a major irritant in relations.
- Cambodia went back to court in 2011. The ICJ reaffirmed the ruling in 2013, a decision that rattled Thailand. Thailand does not accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ and insists on solving conflicting border claims by the existing bilateral mechanism.
- Cambodia maintains that it has submitted the case to the ICJ, and would no longer discuss these areas under the two countries' bilateral mechanism.
- Additionally, Thailand and Cambodia share a 26,600 square kilometre area that overlaps their maritime boundary claims.
The recent dispute was triggered in May 2025 after the armed forces of Thailand and Cambodia briefly fired at each other in a disputed area between Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Si Sa Ket province, in violation of a 2000 memorandum of understanding between the two countries.