Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet interviewed with Fox News Digital during a trip to D.C. for President Trump's Board of Peace. (Fox News Digital)
TRUMP’S PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH IN 2025: WHERE WARS STOPPED AND RIVALS CAME TO THE TABLE
Still, Manet declined to threaten military retaliation. "Our position is to always stick to peaceful resolutions," he said. "We don’t believe that using war to stop a war is sustainable or practical."
Thailand, with a population of more than 70 million — roughly four times Cambodia’s 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 Trump’s Board of Peace.
"The Board of Peace can play an active role in promoting peace, stability and normalcy between Cambodia and Thailand," he said.
TRUMP CONVENES FIRST ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ MEETING AS GAZA REBUILD HINGES ON HAMAS DISARMAMENT
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 People’s Party has maintained firm control over the country’s 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.
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. (Soveit Yarn/Reuters)
Manet said navigating ties with competing world powers "doesn’t 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 Cambodia’s southern coast rebuilt with Chinese financing. (Samrang Pring/Reuters)
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.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
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."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cambodian-pm-says-thai-forces-occupying-disputed-land-despite-trump-brokered-ceasefire