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Jun 08, 2026

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Phnom Penh Drags Bangkok to The Hague's Cousin

Hun Manet delivered notice of UNCLOS compulsory conciliation on June 2, sending a message to both Bangkok and the UN Secretary-General about the 26,000-square-kilometer Overlapping Claims Area in the Gulf of Thailand, a patch of seabed thought to hold up to $300 billion worth of oil and natural gas. The notice arrives shortly after Thailand tore up the 2001 MoU that had at least in theory kept the two sides talking, and it sets a 21-day timer on Bangkok to get it’s its own conciliators appointed or get the UN do it for them. Phnom Penh has already arranged its team, which is headed by Peter Taksoe-Jensen, the Danish diplomat who chaired the only previous use of this mechanism (the Australia-Timor-Leste commission that finished in 2018), and includes French ICJ veteran Jean-Marc Thouvenin, with Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as Cambodia’s agent.

Read more: Khaosod English (Hun Manet framing), The Diplomat (conciliation mechanism), Ny1 (Anutin), CamboJA News ($300B reserves)

Petrol, Matches, and 1,181 Steps

Thai soldiers got their photos taken as they poured gasoline on a 325-meter wooden staircase leading to K'nar Temple before setting it on fire, destroying a 1,181-step access route that Cambodia built in 2017. The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts also accused Thai forces of pulling down Hindu icons and swapping in Buddha statues in temples that it took control of in last year's border fighting. Thailand reportedly went even further by opening Ta Krabey to ticketed public visits and religious ceremonies over this past weekend which Phnom Penh said was not acceptable under the Franco-Siamese Treaties of 1904 and 1907. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told The Times that Bangkok was trying to manufacture a "fait accompli."

Read more: The Star (staircase), The Times (casualty & displacement), Khmer Times (international forums)

Open Skies, Open Wallet, Open Embassy

After 12 years of stop-start talks, the US and Cambodia closed an Open Skies Agreement during Deputy Assistant Secretary Hunt VanderToll's visit to Phnom Penh last Friday, clearing the way for direct commercial flights for the first time. The trip also brought a $100 million DFC financing commitment for Techo International Airport, routed through Canadia Group's OCIC after more than two years of due diligence work. The airport money still has to get congressional notification done before it can properly close, so keep that in mind before you break out the confetti. The White House also put forward Wisconsin's Christopher Anderson as nominee for the role of ambassador, filling a post empty since Patrick Murphy left in mid-2024.

Read more: Khmer Times (Boeing deal), Cambodianess (ceasefire), Khmer Times (VanderToll meetings), CamboJA News (Walker interim tenure), Cambodia Investment Review (OCIC due diligence)

Forced Labor, Forced Tariff

Cambodian exports will get an extra 10% US tariff under a June 2 USTR proposal targeting countries that fail to ban goods made with forced labor. Cambodia is one of 54 economies that the US claims does not have an effective legal prohibition, but its reciprocal trade commitments with Washington spared it the steeper 12.5% tier that’s been reserved for countries with who have neither measures nor commitments in place. Garments, footwear and travel goods, the backbone of Cambodian export revenues, are in the crosshairs. Written comments are due in about a month and public hearings will begin July 7. The Labor Ministry waved it off, saying there are no forced labor issues in Cambodia.

Read more: Khmer Times (analyst), Cambodianess (tariff)

From Wats to Vodka, Siem Reap Courting Moscow

International arrivals fell 46% in early 2026, with 1.01 million visitors in the first four months and ticket sales to Angkor Archaeological Park down 31.8% through May. The collapse has been seen from every major source market. Chinese and Vietnamese tourists, who together used to make up more than a third of arrivals, have largely stopped coming after trafficking cases tied to scam compounds poisoned the country's reputation in both Beijing and Hanoi. As part of work to stem the tide and resuscitate the moribund arrival figures, Lotus Group CEO Vladimir Palancica brought the first delegation of Russian tour operators to Siem Reap this week. He, and the group, were welcomed by State Secretary Neang Mao on behalf of Tourism Minister Huot Hak. The pitch leans on "high-yield" Russian visitors who typically stay five to seven days.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (airline adjustments), Travel and Tour World (luxury product pitch), Cambodia Investment Review (BRICS House launch)

people walking on park near trees and building during daytime — Photo by allPhoto Bangkok on Unsplash

Hobson Offers Three Hundred Dollars a Hectare

Nearly 700 families in Preah Vihear met authorities and company reps Thursday over land disputes that go back to a nearly 6,000-hectare concession granted in 2012. China Great Cause moved onto farms in 2025 and cleared crops without notice, then offered $300 per hectare to residents who had worked the land for years. Global Green, tied to U.S.-sanctioned tycoon Try Pheap, did the same to cashew and cassava plots cultivated for decades, paying one farmer $3,987 for two hectares of cashew plantation to make way for a mining project. When one resident asked what he was supposed to do without his nine hectares, provincial officials suggested he could go work for the company that took them.

Roofs for the Living, Ranks for the Dead

Hun Manet's government has handed out two very different forms of post-war relief. More than 11,600 people displaced from Banteay Meanchey and Preah Vihear have moved into government-built stilt homes with power and piped water, finished in March, but the new settlements offer little beyond shelter from the worst of the elements. Sok Horn, 62, who once ran a clothing shop in Boeung Trakuon, says customers are scarce because "they are all displaced people, and there is not much money." Her son Hour Kimhak, who used to make about $700 a month from a mobile phone shop before the fighting destroyed it, has no capital to start again and has struggled to find work. A decision Hun Manet signed in March and made public on June 3 gives Second Lieutenant commissions to 41 relatives of soldiers killed or seriously wounded. The promotions are being seen as a gesture to families of those lost in the 2025 border dispute, though the document isn’t explicit about that.

Read more: CamboJA News ($75 household aid), Cambodia Daily (Second Lieutenant appointments)

Seven Hundred Days and Counting

The Phnom Penh Court of Appeals postponed the appeals hearing for all 10 Mother Nature Cambodia convicts on June 2 and hasn’t set any new date yet. The five who are serving, including Yim Leanghy, who was given eight years for plotting against the government and insulting the king, are 700 days into terms of six to eight years. They are scattered between prisons hundreds of kilometers from their families and lawyers. Seventy-three civil society groups, from LICADHO and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have signed an open letter to Hun Manet this month asking him to reverse the convictions before the Francophonie Summit arrives in Phnom Penh later this year.

Kith Meng's House, Kith Meng's Rules

Seven international chambers, including AmCham, EuroCham, and BritCham, brought 24 reform proposals to a CDC-hosted breakfast on June 4, and not a single one got any real opposition. Before the day was out, the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce had fired off a formal letter to Deputy PM Sun Chanthol defending its role as G-PSF Secretariat and warning that "no individual business association should bypass established mechanisms." The letter was signed by Kith Meng, who is also the chair of the G-PSF's Coordinating Committee.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (24 reform proposals), Cambodia Investment Review (CCC rebuttal)

Paid in Full, Plot Unknown

About 30 buyers of the Borey Morn Dany housing project come together outside the Land Management Ministry last week, about five years after paying for villas and townhouses that remain unbuilt on undemarked land. Him Lina spent nearly five years working in Japan, saved close to $20,000, bought a villa in 2021, and still can't point to his own plot. The ministry has issued land titles, but they cover ownership only, and buyers say the missing boundary lines make the paper useless as bank collateral. After the meeting, officials told buyers to submit more documents and wait for a future sit-down with the developer.

A Holiday in Search of a Reason

A May 21 sub-decree designates July 11 as "National Population Day," instructing government bodies to help the public "address demographic shifts" and build "population resilience and harmony." What that means in practice, nobody seems to know, but we can think of some risqué activities that might help stem the decline. The Ministry of Planning didn't respond to questions. A former ministry spokesperson said he had no information. A Royal Academy researcher said he had only recently seen the decree and also had no information.

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