AKP Phnom Penh, December 25, 2025 --

1.The war of aggression that Bangkok is waging against Cambodia constitutes an extremely dangerous geopolitical turning point. At the global level, it marks a regression toward an international order predating the Second World War. At the level of Southeast Asia, it represents a return to the era before the creation of ASEAN in 1967: the era of the strong striking the weak, of every state for itself, of the law of force and sheer arbitrariness.

2.This so-called “Thai war of aggression against Cambodia” is part of a brutal strategy in which treaties, agreements, official maps, and international law are thrown into the dustbin of history in order to redraw borders by force. In place of dialogue, violence is imposed: military might, F-16, T-50TH and Gripen fighter jets, bombardments, cluster munitions, toxic fumes, armed drones, tanks, and armored vehicles…

3.This war of aggression could sooner or later drag the whole of Southeast Asia into a spiral of insecurity, instability, and cascading conflicts. It is already beginning to destroy the achievements of several decades of ASEAN’s efforts to build a regional space of cooperation, peace, and shared prosperity. For since 7 December 2025, the very architecture of ASEAN has been cracked: one member state is militarily attacking another member state.

4.Can Thailand’s other neighbors, all of them members of ASEAN, truly feel safe when they see Cambodia attacked simultaneously by land, air, and sea? One need only imagine the impact, within the European Union, of one member state launching an armed invasion against another to grasp the gravity of the situation.

It is now incumbent upon regional and global leaders, as well as upon regional and international public opinion, to show courage: the courage to react, the courage to condemn, and the courage to call this war by its true name, a “Thai war of aggression against Cambodia.”

Jean-François Tan 
Minister Attached to the Prime Minister 
(The views expressed are his own.)