Updated on June 17, 2025, 5:25 p.m.
Cambodia blocked imports of Thai vegetables and fruits on Tuesday, and Thailand prohibited its nationals from working in certain casinos inside the Cambodia in fresh fallout from a border dispute triggered by an exchange of 10 minutes last month.
The Cambodia Ministry of Information said that the authorities along the border with Thailand closed the doors to block the importation of Thai agricultural products.
Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Tuesday that Cambodia will only authorize Thai imports if the Thai army reopens all border control points and take up normal operations. He also placed this as a condition for discussing reductions in troop figures on the border.
Tensions and military deployments have increased since Thai forces killed a Cambodian soldier on May 28. Thailand said Cambodian forces have dug a trench on the Thai side of the border.
“Thailand must first show a real good will and comply with our basic state, which is to reopen the border passages on both sides until they were. It is only then that we will talk about troops,” Hun Manet said on Tuesday.
Since June 7, Thailand has restricted border openings from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Usually, they are open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The army of Thailand planned to propose a reduction in troop deployments along the border during a meeting of the regional border committee in Thailand-Cambodia scheduled from June 27 to 28. But defense vice-minister, Natthaphon Narkphanit, said that Cambodia, which was to welcome the meeting, had reported it indefinitely, the nation reported.
On Tuesday, the Thai army prohibited Thai people from crossing the border to work in casinos and places of entertainment in Poipet, which is on the Cambodian side of the main terrestrial crossing point between the two countries, opposite the eastern Thai city of Aranyaprathet.
Casinos are not legal in Thailand, so play establishments proliferate near the main border passages in neighboring countries like Cambodia.
The Bangkok Post newspaper reported that the order had taken vigor Tuesday at 8 am and is in place until further notice. It aims to guarantee the safety of Thai, according to the report.
Police colonel Napatrapong Supaporn, chief of the immigration police in the province of his Kaeo, would have said that the Thai people who are still in Piws should go home for their own security.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Cambodian border provinces, including Pursat and Preah Vihear, announced on Facebook that hundreds of families had been evacuated from primary lines in safer places.
This week, Cambodia submitted a request from the International Court of Justice to The Hague to reign over the demarcation of four locations on the border, including near the scene of last month’s confrontation.
The border dispute has historical roots and the two parts differ on the maps to be used in the delimiting territory. The last time, there was a serious and bloody push in tensions, it was between 2008 and 2011, on a disputed temple of the 11th century in Preah Vihear. The International Criminal Court has granted sovereignty over the temple in Cambodia.
Edited by Mat Pennington.
Updated with Cambodia postponing a scheduled meeting of the border committee at the end of June.