Cambodia Turns to France's Colonial-Era Maps in Bid to Settle Thai Border Dispute

In a letter sent this month to French President Emmanuel Macron, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet made a request that illuminates both the promise and the peril of resolving Southeast Asia's deadliest border conflict in decades: he asked the former colonial power to open its archives Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Phnom Penh wants access to the boundary documents and maps produced by French surveyors who first demarcated the 817-kilometre frontier between Cambodia and what was then Siam in 1907. The demarcation relied on the watershed principle separating the basins of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, but the maps French cartographers produced deviated from that line in several areas — deviations that have fuelled territorial disputes ever since Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

The most symbolically charged of those disputed areas surrounds the 11th-century Hindu temple of Preah Vihear, known in Thailand as Khao Phra Viharn. Both nations regard the clifftop sanctuary as a potent nationalist icon. Thailand has long argued that the temple lies north of the watershed line described in the Franco-Siamese treaties and should be under Bangkok's control. Cambodia counters that the French maps, which place the site on the Cambodian side, are the authoritative record Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

The International Court of Justice sided with Cambodia in 1962, and reaffirmed that ruling in 2013 following a brief border war. But the broader boundary question was never fully resolved, and last year the dispute erupted into the worst fighting the region has seen in more than a decade Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Open combat began in July 2025 after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a skirmish in late May. A fragile ceasefire brokered in Malaysia with American involvement held briefly before hostilities resumed in early December and raged for over three weeks. By the time a second ceasefire was declared on December 27, at least 149 people had been killed — the majority civilians — and close to a million people had been displaced on both sides of the border Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Nearly two months later, the humanitarian situation remains grim. A World Vision situation report from early February 2026 estimates that roughly 98,000 people are still displaced across shelters and host communities, including more than 51,000 children. In the border communes of Prey Chan and Chouk Chey in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province, officials say about 80 percent of land and homes are now inaccessible after Thailand erected barbed wire fencing reinforced with shipping containers Cambodia hopes French maps will vindicate it in Thai rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

The diplomatic context has also shifted dramatically. Thailand held a general election on February 8, and the result was a decisive victory for the Bhumjaithai Party under Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who ran on a stridently nationalist platform that included a pledge to build a wall along the disputed frontier. Analysts say the border clashes were central to the vote, with Anutin presenting himself as a defender of Thai sovereignty in contrast to the more conciliatory People's Party Cambodia hopes French maps will vindicate it in Thai rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Geopolitical analyst Seng Vanly told Cambodianess that Bhumjaithai's success gives Bangkok both the political capital and the public mandate to maintain a high military posture along the border. "The rise of the Bhumjaithai Party through a campaign fought on a war footing marks a significant shift in the regional security landscape," Vanly said Cambodia hopes French maps will vindicate it in Thai rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

It is against this backdrop that Hun Manet's appeal to Paris should be understood. Cambodia, the smaller nation facing a militarily stronger adversary, has increasingly framed the dispute as a matter of international law rather than bilateral negotiation. After the July escalation, Hun Manet announced Cambodia would seek a fresh ruling from the ICJ. Phnom Penh also appealed to the UN Security Council during later fighting, while Thailand publicly rejected international mediation and insisted on bilateral talks Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Soksamphoas Im, associate director of the Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University, told Deutsche Welle that obtaining French documentation would strengthen Cambodia's legal position because colonial-era boundary maps continue to be officially recognised by the ICJ and the United Nations. She drew a parallel to the 1947 British Radcliffe Line between India and Pakistan, which international bodies still reference, and to the 2008 ICJ sovereignty case over Pedra Branca island, in which colonial-era records proved decisive Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Bernard Keo, assistant professor of International History and Politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute, offered a broader framing. "Colonialism is the original sin by which the Myanmar Civil War, the Thai-Cambodia border war, the ongoing territorial disputes between Indonesia and Malaysia over Borneo, and many others still ongoing in Southeast Asia descended from," he told DW. The fragmentary process of decolonisation after World War II, he argued, created nation-states that continue to grapple with unresolved boundary questions Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Not everyone sees French involvement as straightforwardly helpful. Sophal Ear, a political scientist at Arizona State University, acknowledged that narrowly defined technical assistance — helping Cambodia locate and authenticate archival documents without endorsing any territorial interpretation — could lower tensions. "A narrowly defined technical role might help depoliticize the discussion and anchor it in documentation," he told DW Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

But Ear warned that if France were perceived as substantively endorsing one side's claims, the move could backfire. "Thailand might interpret such involvement as external bias or as a revival of colonial authority in a contemporary dispute. That would risk hardening positions rather than facilitating compromise," he said Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

Paris has not officially said whether it will accede to Phnom Penh's request. The French government has tried to maintain neutrality since the fighting began last July, though Macron had earlier indicated a willingness to assist in discussions, according to Cambodia's foreign ministry Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..

The stakes extend well beyond the two countries. The Philippines holds the ASEAN chair in 2026, and analysts point to the Cambodia-Thailand crisis as one of the sharpest tests the regional bloc will face this year. With a nationalist Thai government freshly empowered, nearly 100,000 people still living in displacement, and 800,000 Cambodian migrants who left their lives in Thailand behind, the question of whether century-old French maps can chart a path to peace is more than academic — it is urgent Cambodia eyes French maps to resolve Thailand border rowdw.com·SecondaryCambodia has requested French assistance, including access to historical boundary documents and colonial-era maps, in hopes of resolving its ongoing border dispute with Thailand. This month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that Phnom Penh would also welcome expertise and advisory support from the former colonial power..