(Phnom Penh): On the morning of 8 December 2025, at approximately 5:00 a.m., the Thai military launched an armed attack into Cambodian territory in the An Ses area of Preah Vihear Province, followed by additional shelling at Tamone Thom Temple and several other locations along the border using multiple types of heavy weaponry. Between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., Thai forces continued their assaults in and around the immediate vicinity of the Temple of Preah Vihear, causing damage to the conservation building of the Gopura V Conservation and Restoration Project, implemented under Cambodia–India cooperation, as well as other essential conservation infrastructure at the site.

Since the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihear on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 7 July 2008, Thailand has repeatedly fabricated claims and provoked armed confrontations in and around the temple, most notably between 2008 and 2011, and again during the renewed hostilities of 24–28 July 2025. The most recent attack occurred following several consecutive days of deliberate Thai military provocations, including the incident on 7 December 2025 at Prolean Thmor area within the Preah Vihear Temple Conservation Zone in Sra Em Commune, Choam Ksant District—acts clearly intended to incite confrontation and undermine the Kuala Lumpur Peace Agreement.

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts strongly condemns this renewed aggression, which has gravely obstructed ongoing conservation operations and forced the evacuation of officials, staff, guards, and conservation workers of the National Authority for Preah Vihear, as well as local residents. The Ministry denounces this blatant violation of the Joint Declaration on Peace between Cambodia and Thailand, signed by the Prime Ministers of both countries and facilitated and witnessed by US President Donald J. Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on 26 October 2025 in Kuala Lumpur.

The Ministry calls on Thailand to immediately cease all hostilities, which threaten peace, stability, and regional cooperation, and to fully and sincerely comply with the ceasefire agreement, the Joint Declaration on Peace, and all obligations under international law.

The Ministry further urges the international community to condemn Thailand’s aggression against Cambodia’s territorial integrity and the continuing destruction of the World Heritage Site of Preah Vihear—serious violations of the 1972 World Heritage Convention and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. As a State Party to these instruments, Thailand must be held fully accountable for these grave breaches.
=FRESH NEWS