
FIRST ON FOX: Last year when President Donald Trump helped broker a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, he took a victory lap.
"Who else could say, 'I'm going to make a phone call and stop a war between two very powerful countries, Thailand and Cambodia?'" he said.
Now, that agreement appears under strain, as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told Fox News Digital that Thai forces have pushed into long-held Cambodian territory beyond the line of dispute. Thai soldiers have sealed off villages with barbed wire and shipping containers, leaving 80,000 Cambodian locals unable to return home, according to Cambodian officials.
"The occupation is beyond even Thailands unilateral claim ," Manet said. "Many of the villagers cannot go back to their hometowns."
Cambodia and Thailand have sparred for decades over sections of their 500-mile land border, much of which was drawn during the French colonial era and later interpreted differently by Bangkok and Phnom Penh. The dispute has periodically flared into armed clashes, particularly around areas near historic Khmer temple sites and rural villages where demarcation remains incomplete.
Tensions escalated again last year, with fighting breaking out along contested stretches of the frontier and displacing thousands of civilians on both sides. The clashes prompted diplomatic intervention and culminated in a ceasefire agreement brokered with U.S. involvement during an ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur.
Images and local reporting from the most recent fighting show damage to structures near the frontier, including at or near the UNESCO-listed Preah Vihear temple complex raising concerns about the safety of cultural heritage sites caught in contested zones. Cambodian officials have blamed Thai forces for the damage, while Thai officials have denied deliberately targeting religious or cultural landmarks, saying military operations were limited to contested security areas.
The Thai embassy could not be reached for comment on this interview.
Still, Manet declined to threaten military retaliation. "Our position is to always stick to peaceful resolutions," he said. "We dont believe that using war to stop a war is sustainable or practical."
Thailand, with a population of more than 70 million roughly four times Cambodias 17 million maintains a significantly larger and better-equipped military, raising the stakes of any renewed conflict.
With fighting again threatening fragile stability along the frontier, Manet traveled to Washington this week for the inaugural meeting of Trumps Board of Peace.
"The Board of Peace can play an active role in promoting peace, stability and normalcy between Cambodia and Thailand," he said.
Hun Manet took office in 2023, succeeding his father, Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades. The leadership transition marked the first formal handover of power in decades, though the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party has maintained firm control over the countrys political system amid longstanding criticism from rights groups about limits on opposition activity.
A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Manet has sought to maintain close ties with China while cautiously reopening channels with Washington, including restoring joint military exercises that had been suspended in 2017.
As Cambodia navigates tensions with Thailand, it is also balancing relations between Washington and Beijing.
Manet said navigating ties with competing world powers "doesnt have to be a zero-sum game" and that Cambodia, as a smaller nation, cannot afford to "choose one country against the other."
That balance has centered in part on Ream Naval Base, a strategic facility on Cambodias southern coast rebuilt with Chinese financing.
The USS Cincinnati docked at Ream in late January, marking the first U.S. warship visit since the base was renovated with Chinese funding and technical support. The visit was marked by a striking visual: the USS Cincinnati docked roughly 150 meters from a Chinese naval vessel already moored at the base. For years, U.S. officials have raised concerns that Cambodia had granted China exclusive access.
But Manet insisted the base remains under Cambodian control. "Our constitution says that no foreign military base [can] be situated on Cambodian soil."
The U.S. visit, he said, "clearly shows that Cambodia is not exclusively used as a naval base for cooperation with China ."
Manet also confirmed that annual U.S.-Cambodia military exercises known as Angkor Sentinel, suspended in 2017, are set to resume this year signaling warming defense ties. "We hope to have expanding cooperation with the U.S."
In recent years, Cambodia has emerged as a hub for large-scale online scam operations, including so-called "pig butchering" schemes that have defrauded victims worldwide including Americans out of billions of dollars. U.S. authorities have sanctioned Cambodian-linked entities tied to crypto fraud and pressed Phnom Penh to intensify enforcement efforts amid concerns about trafficking and forced labor linked to some compounds.
Manet said his government has stepped up cooperation with U.S. authorities and recently worked with the FBI to dismantle a major operation.
"We have recently worked with the FBI cracking on a major case involving one of the Oknyaks," he said, referring to an influential Cambodian figure. "We arrested him, and we closed down one of the big compounds."
福克斯独家报道:去年,当唐纳德·特朗普总统协助促成泰国与柬埔寨之间的停火协议后,他为此庆祝胜利。
他说道:“还有谁能说出‘我要打个电话,就能阻止泰国和柬埔寨这两个强国之间的战争’这样的话?”
如今,这一协议似乎岌岌可危。柬埔寨首相洪玛奈向福克斯新闻数字频道透露,泰国军队已越过争议界线,侵入柬埔寨长期控制的领土。柬埔寨官员称,泰方士兵用带刺铁丝网和集装箱封锁村庄,导致8万名柬埔寨民众无法返乡。
曼奈表示:“这种占领行为甚至超出了泰国的单方面主张。许多村民无法返回自己的家乡。”
柬埔寨与泰国围绕两国500英里陆地边界的部分区域已争执数十年。这段边界大多划定于法国殖民时期,但后来曼谷和金边对其解释存在分歧。争议地区周期性爆发武装冲突,尤以历史悠久的吴哥寺庙遗址周边及尚未完成划界的乡村地带为甚。
去年紧张局势再度升级,双方在有争议的边境地区爆发冲突,导致数千名平民流离失所。这些冲突引发了外交干预,最终在美国参与斡旋下,于吉隆坡举行的东盟峰会期间达成了停火协议。
近期冲突的影像资料和当地报道显示,边境附近的建筑遭到破坏,其中包括联合国教科文组织世界遗产名录中的柏威夏寺及其周边区域,这引发了人们对争议地区文化遗产安全性的担忧。柬埔寨官员指责泰国军队造成了这些破坏,而泰国官员则否认故意针对宗教或文化地标,称军事行动仅限于争议安全区域。
就此次采访内容,记者未能联系到泰国大使馆置评。
尽管如此,马内仍拒绝以军事报复相威胁。"我们的立场是始终坚持和平解决方式,"他表示,"我们认为以战争制止战争既不可持续也不切实际。"
泰国拥有超过7000万人口,大约是柬埔寨1700万人口的四倍,其军队规模更为庞大且装备精良,这使得任何新的冲突风险加剧。
随着边境地区脆弱的稳定局势再度受到战火威胁,马内本周前往华盛顿参加特朗普和平委员会的首次会议。
他表示:“和平委员会能够在促进柬埔寨与泰国之间的和平、稳定与正常关系方面发挥积极作用。”
洪玛奈于2023年就任,接替其父洪森成为柬埔寨新任领导人。洪森曾统治柬埔寨近四十年。此次权力交接是柬埔寨数十年来首次正式的领导层更迭,尽管执政的柬埔寨人民党长期面临人权组织对限制反对派活动的批评,但仍牢牢掌控着国家的政治体系。
作为美国西点军校的毕业生,马内(Manet)在谨慎重启与华盛顿沟通渠道的同时,始终致力于保持与中国的紧密联系,包括恢复2017年暂停的联合军事演习。
柬埔寨在应对与泰国紧张关系的同时,也在平衡华盛顿与北京之间的关系。
马奈表示,与竞争中的世界大国打交道"未必是零和游戏",并强调柬埔寨作为一个小国,无法承受"选边站队"的代价。
这种平衡部分体现在云壤海军基地上,该基地位于柬埔寨南部沿海,是一处经中国出资重建的战略设施。
1月下旬,美国海军"辛辛那提"号军舰停靠云壤海军基地,这是该基地在中国资金和技术支持下完成升级改造后,首次迎来美国军舰访问。此次访问出现了一个引人注目的画面:"辛辛那提"号停泊的位置距离早已驻泊在该基地的中国海军舰艇仅约150米。多年来,美国官员一直对柬埔寨可能向中国提供专属使用权表示担忧。
但马内强调该基地仍由柬埔寨掌控。"我国宪法规定,柬埔寨领土上不得设立外国军事基地。"
他表示,此次美国之行"清楚地表明,柬埔寨并非仅被用作与中国合作的海军基地。"
马奈(Manet)同时证实,自2017年起暂停的美柬年度联合军演"吴哥哨兵"(Angkor Sentinel)将于今年恢复举行,这标志着两国防务关系正在回暖。他表示:"我们希望与美国拓展合作领域。"
近年来,柬埔寨已成为大规模网络诈骗活动的中心,其中包括所谓的"杀猪盘"骗局,这些骗局已从全球受害者(包括美国人)手中骗取了数十亿美元。美国当局已对与加密货币欺诈有关的柬埔寨关联实体实施制裁,并敦促金边方面加大执法力度,原因是担心一些园区存在贩运和强迫劳动问题。
马内表示,其政府已加强与美国当局的合作,并近期与美国联邦调查局(FBI)联手捣毁了一项重大犯罪活动。
他提到一位柬埔寨颇具影响力的人物时表示:“我们近期与美国联邦调查局(FBI)合作按天配资开户服务网,侦破了一起涉及奥克尼亚克家族成员的重大案件,已成功将其逮捕,并查封了一处大型园区。”
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