[…] Samdech Thipadei: Right now, when the troops stopped fighting, the Thai troops are occupying all of these (areas) with the containers and barbed wires. This is why we said the occupation is beyond even Thailand’s unilateral claim. This area belongs to Cambodia’s village that now many of the villagers cannot go back to their hometown. This is different from the joint statement that we have between the two countries that allows civilians to return. Even the point that stated after the stop of the shooting, the troops stay where they can stay there and not move beyond their area of control. But, the extension of using barbed wires and the containers to block off villages, this is something that we urge Thailand to allow our people to go back and also start the demarcation process with Cambodia through the joint mechanism that we both agree on. […]
Q: If the Thai presence continues to push into your territory, how does Cambodia plan to respond and under what circumstances would the ceasefire become unsustainable?
Samdech Thipadei: Our position is always to stick to peaceful resolution and dialogue because we don’t believe that using a war to stop a war is sustainable or practical. This is why we ask Thailand to go back to the agreement that we have, including the KL Peace Accord with President Trump, who presided over and witnessed it, which set out a clear condition to solve this issue because the root cause of conflict with Thailand is the territorial conflict.
[…] We’ve already known that the past 6 months President Trump has played a tremendous role in facilitating and securing the first ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, also the KL Accord with participation from the ASEAN’s chair, President Anwar. So, I think President Trump has his passion, his personal goal to see peace and stability. I spoke with him, and he always mentions that the life of the people is very important, so stopping war is his personal mandate. […]
Q: (on) Ream Naval Base rebuilt with Chinese financing; U.S. warship docked Jan. 2026
Samdech Thipadei: We have a multinational building there that is a permanent structure waiting to receive all our visiting partners. There’s nothing to hide in this. So, this is clear at Ream Naval Base. The actual action of welcoming multinational ship visits clearly shows that Cambodia is not exclusively using Ream Naval Base for cooperation with only China.
Q: The State Department previously pushed Cambodia to do more combat online scam networks. Would you talk about any progress you made there? And are you working with US authority on this?
Samdech Thipadei: We increase our interaction with our partner, especially the FBI, which has worked with our agencies, committees, and also the National Police, working together on cross-border crimes, including online scams. This is a growing success. We have recently, with the FBI, cracked a major case involving one of the Oknha (influential figures). We arrested him and closed down one of the big compounds. It is a success story with the FBI.
