Less than two months after the signing of the Kuala Lumpur peace accord — widely promoted by President Donald Trump as a signature diplomatic achievement — renewed fighting between Thailand and Cambodia has cast doubt on the truce’s longevity.
In a fresh round of hostilities between Thailand and Cambodia, the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) F-16 fighter jets launched airstrikes on Cambodia on December 8. This is the most serious confrontation between the two states since they agreed to a ceasefire in July 2025 after days of heavy fighting over a border dispute.
A Thai army spokesman, Colonel Winthai Suvaree, said Cambodian troops opened fire first with rifles, machine guns, and rockets. He said that the airstrikes targeted Cambodian military infrastructure.
“The target was at Cambodia’s arms supporting positions in the area of Chong An Ma Pass, because those targets had used artillery and mortar launchers to attack the Thai side at Anupong Base, resulting in one soldier killed,” Suvaree said.
F-16A Fighting Falcons with the Royal Thai Air Force have carried out several strikes on the Chong Arn Ma Casino, across from the Nam Yuen District, Ubon Ratchathani Province of Southern Thailand, an abandoned casino near the border between Thailand and Cambodia which reportedly… pic.twitter.com/qVyskfFO0z
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 8, 2025
Separately, the RTAF accused Cambodia of mobilising heavy weaponry, repositioning combat units, and preparing fire-support elements, warning that this could escalate military operations and threaten the Thai border. However, Cambodia has dismissed these allegations as “false information.”
Both Thailand and Cambodia have accused the other of launching the strikes and causing escalation.
Notably, the escalation potentially marks an end to the “peace plan” signed by both states at the behest of US President Donald Trump.
In response to the July 2025 flare-up, US President Donald Trump intervened diplomatically, leveraging phone calls with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet to secure an initial ceasefire on July 28, as part of his “peacemaking” deal.
Building on this, Trump linked additional de-escalation to US trade incentives, including reciprocal trade agreements and tariff threats.
The ceasefire was followed by the signing of a “peace accord” by the Thai and Cambodian leaders in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October 2025. The agreement was described as “a momentous day for South East Asia.”
As part of this deal, both Southeast Asian nations agreed to remove their heavy weaponry from the disputed border and set up an interim observer team to keep vigil. It also included a specific provision for humanitarian de-mining and the removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO) along their shared border. Both sides pledged to install temporary boundary markers in place of any missing ones.
Trump hailed it as a “historic” and “monumental” achievement, renaming the modest declaration the “Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords”.
However, experts said it was more of a temporary pause than a comprehensive resolution to the border conflict.
In fact, the cracks started to show shortly after the declaration was signed. While Cambodia nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, Thai officials downplayed it as merely a “pathway to peace,” emphasising bilateral resolution without external mediation.
Thailand refused to recognise the deal as “Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords,” a title floated by Trump. Instead, they referred to it as “Joint Declaration by the prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia on the outcomes of their meeting in Kuala Lumpur.”
Sporadic incidents began to fray the deal days after signing, including Thailand’s accusations that Cambodia had planted new landmines. Last month, after a landmine wounded four Thai soldiers, the Thai Prime Minister Charnvirakul suspended the deal.
The accords lasted less than two months, spilling cold water on Trump’s much-hyped peace deal.
Taking to his social media platform Truth Social after the Kuala Lumpur accords, Trump positioned himself as “President of Peace,” along with claims that he had ended eight wars in eight months.
He was referring to the wars between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, Pakistan and India, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.
Trump’s Peace Plans In Shambles?
Of the eight wars that Trump claimed to have ended, the Thailand-Cambodia conflict seems to have broken out again.
Meanwhile, India has denied repeated claims that Trump intervened in the Indo-Pakistan conflict in May 2025 and ended the four-day intense war triggered by Operation Sindoor.
On May 10, Trump wrote on social media that the two countries reached a “full and immediate ceasefire” following a “long night” of negotiations mediated by Washington.
Reiterating these claims in October, he said, “If you look at India and Pakistan, they were ready to go at it. Seven planes were shot down. They are nuclear powers. I don’t want to say exactly what I said, but what I said was very effective. They stopped. And that was based on tariffs. It was based on trade.”
While Pakistan has recognised Trump’s role in ending the war and nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, India has consistently denied any third-party intervention and asserted that the ceasefire was achieved after discussions between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both sides.
Additionally, tensions continue to simmer between India and Pakistan and New Delhi has asserted that it’s Operation Sindoor (to target terrorists in and outside Pakistan) is not over. It appears to be a truce hanging by a thread.
The other peace plan that Trump prides himself on is the one reached between Israel and Hamas, which apparently helped end the Gaza war.
In September 2025, Trump unveiled a comprehensive 20-point plan aimed at ending the Gaza war, which had raged for over two years since October 2023.
The proposal emphasised an immediate ceasefire, hostage and prisoner exchanges, demilitarisation of Gaza, internationalOctober 9 oversight, and large-scale reconstruction. Trump described it as a October 10urable, and everlasting peace,” with no Israeli annexation of Gaza or new settlements.
It was signed in its first phase by Israel and Hamas on October 9, 2025, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, leading to a ceasefire effective October 10. The first phase of the plan is now complete, and Trump announced that Phase 2 will commence “pretty soon,” potentially by Christmas.
However, an Al Jazeera report published in December 2025 stJune 23rael has broken the ceasefire more than 500 times since October 2025, killing at least 356 Palestinians and more than 70,000 people overall in Gaza.
The claims regarding ending the Israel-Iran war are more aspirational.
On 23 June, Trump posted: “Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World.” The announcement was made after the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities as part of ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ to break the stalemate in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
While the ceasefire ended hostilities, both countries remain each other’s biggest adversaries, and peace remains elusive. Both sides are bolstering their respective militaries to deter and build capabilities for future war.
After the war ended, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed his nation had achieved a “decisive victory” following the end of hostilities. Meanwhile, Israel has used messaging that hinted that it could strike Tehran again to counter new threats emerging from the Islamic Republic.
Trump also claimed to put an end to the war between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A long-standing animosity between the two nations erupted after the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group took control of the mineral-rich region in eastern DR Congo earlier in the year.
In June 2025, Trump administration officials oversaw a preliminary peace accord signed by the foreign ministers of Rwanda and the DRC at the White House. Trump hailed it as ending “one of the worst wars anyone’s ever seen,” emphasising economic incentives like US access to the region’s mineral resources.
This was followed by the signing of a US-mediated peace deal between DRC President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Washington.
“IDecember 4t day for Africa, a great day for the world,” the US President said before the leaders signed the pact. “Today, we’re succeeding where so many others have failed,” he added.
However, fighting resumed within hours of the December 4 ceremony, with clashes between DRC forces and M23 in South Kivu province, causing civilian deaths, displacement, and mutual accusations of violations.
Interestingly, Donald Trump claimed ending a war between Egypt and Ethiopia, even though there was no war, just tensions over Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the River Nile.
Trump said, “If I were Egypt, I’d want the water in the Nile”, and promised that the US was going to resolve the issue very quickly. Egypt welcomed TJune 27words, but Ethiopian officials said they risked inflaming tensions.
The President, now also known for his love for the coveted Peace Prize, also claims to have ended the hostility between Serbia and Kosovo.
On June 27, he said, “Serbia, Kosovo was going to go at it, going to be a big war. I told you to go at it; there’s no trade with the United States. They said, Well, maybe we won’t go at it.” Interestingly, even though Serbia and Kosovo have remained marred in tensions since the Balkan Wars of the 1990s and as a result of Kosovo’s independence, there has not been an armed conflict.
Neither side has fired at the other, nor have they agreed to a peace plan.
In recent times, Trump has intensified efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which is fast approaching its four-year mark.
A draft pDecember 8leaked in November 2025 proposed that Ukraine give up additional occupied territory in the east, cap the size of its military, and vow never to join NATO. Kyiv criticised the plan as being very pro-Russia and unjust.
On December 8, Zelensky said talks on the US-brokered peace plan remain deadlocked over control of eastern Ukraine.
Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shown enthusiasm about the potential deal, and hostilities continue unabated.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
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