
AI-generated summary
Thailand and Cambodia have a long-standing dispute over their 800km land border and competing claims in the Gulf of Thailand, which holds oil and gas reserves worth an estimated US$300 billion. Clashes along the border last year killed scores and froze cross-border trade worth billions. An uneasy ceasefire agreed in December currently holds.
Both sides agreed to use a naval hotline and exercise restraint to ease maritime tensions after holding mediation talks at The Hague
3 -MIN READ3 -MIN
Aidan Jonesin Bangkok
Published: 10:43am, 20 Oct 2026
Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to dial down the rhetoric and use a hotline between their navy commanders to avoid flashpoints over a vast contested patch of energy-rich seas in the Gulf of Thailand, according to a UN-backed mediation panel at The Hague tasked with helping to settle the dispute between the neighbours.
The Southeast Asian countries have also squabbled for decades over the demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) land border, where clashes last year killed scores on both sides and froze cross-border trade worth billions of dollars.
While an uneasy ceasefire agreed in December holds along the frontier, relations between Bangkok and Phnom Penh have plunged to a nadir, with both accusing the other of targeting civilians during the conflict and intermittent breaches of the truce.
Amid the rancour, competing claims have escalated over the Gulf seabed which holds oil and gas reserves worth an estimated US$300 billion.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The naval hotline between Thailand and Cambodia will be activated in the coming weeks
Likely · Within weeks
Maritime incidents in the Gulf of Thailand will decrease in the short term
Possible · Within weeks
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