An ancient temple on a remote mountain ridge on the disputed border is at the center of a dispute that has lasted for centuries (Photo by Manasa Putnala on Unsplash)
Among the growing list of so-called peace treaties that Donald Trump has claimed credit for in his unseemly and frantic quest to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is the ‘line ‘em up, sign ‘em up, and pose for the cameras’ deal he brokered between Thailand and Cambodia after July hostilities broke out over a disputed border area.
Working with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Trump threatened to end trade negotiations to get the two sides to agree to a peace accord, which was signed with much fanfare in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October.
At the time of the initial ceasefire agreement in July, I questioned whether it would hold, given the long-standing enmity between Thailand and Cambodia over the 1907 border demarcation by French colonial authorities, when Cambodia was a French colony. Thailand has argued from the beginning that the map is inaccurate and has persisted in that claim despite the International Court of Justice awarding sovereignty over the area to Cambodia in 1962. In my argument, I pointed out that these two countries have been at odds over their border for centuries, even before the French arrived, and that a transactional approach to the problem that fails to address the historical origins of the dispute—which has been tried and has failed in the past—is doomed to failure.
There are some predictions you hate to be correct about, and this is one of them. But, on December 8, there are reports of thousands of people being evacuated from the Thai-Cambodia border as the two countries again exchange fire, with both sides accusing the other of starting the fight. There are unconfirmed reports of one Thai soldier killed and four injured by a Cambodian artillery strike, and, according to Cambodian officials, four civilians have been killed and nine others wounded by Thai airstrikes. When the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charvirakul, was asked about the Trump-brokered peace agreement, he said, “I don’t remember anymore.” Thailand had already pulled out of talks with Cambodia in early November, and since then, tensions have continued to rise.
While Trump was ultimately unsuccessful in his quest for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, despite an insane level of lobbying, on December 5, 2025, at the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, his friend and supporter, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, awarded him the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. In presenting the award, Infantino said, “You definitely deserve the first FIFA peace prize for your action, for what you have obtained – in your way – but you obtained it in an incredible way.”
We can but wait with anticipation for Trump’s reaction to the resumption of fighting in one of the conflicts that he ‘solved.’ My gut’s telling me that he’ll probably say, “I don’t remember anymore.”