The Cambodian foreign ministry says Thai armed forces built new military bunkers at two places on the border with Thailand on 20 August, one north of Boundary Pillar No. 14 in Oddar Meanchey and one north of Keo Sikha Kiri Svara Pagoda in Preah Vihear. The allegations are in press release 118/2026 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, datelined Phnom Penh 21 August and carried on the ministry’s press release page under 22 August.
From 26 July to 17 August, the release says, Thai armed forces progressively cleared forest in Sangkat O Smach, Krong Samraong, for a new road running from north of Boundary Pillar No. 14 to the area of Ta Thong Mountain, which the release calls Hill 278. On 20 August, by the same account, they continued that road work in those areas and dug bunkers there. The bunkers north of the pagoda, in Sra Em commune of Choam Ksan district, are a separate allegation in the same release, dated the same day, with no clearing sequence before them. The release gives no number for the bunkers and no coordinates fixing either site against any line.
The ministry calls what it has lodged another strong protest, and both places have drawn its protests before: the Phnom Penh Post reported a release of 10 July over embankment and razor-wire work at Boundary Pillar No. 14 between 5 and 7 July, and a release of 5 April over land clearing north of the pagoda the day before.
The release names what it says the activities breach: Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the memorandum of understanding the two governments signed on 14 June 2000 on the survey and demarcation of the land boundary, and the joint statement of the 3rd Special Meeting of the General Border Committee of 27 December 2025, in which, it says, both sides agreed to refer to the Joint Boundary Commission to resume the survey and demarcation work at the earliest. It states that Cambodia does not accept any boundary line Thailand asserts unilaterally and that the activities shall not prejudice its legal rights or position with respect to its international boundary, and it asks Thailand to cease and to honour its commitment to de-escalating.
Article V of the 2000 memorandum has the authorities of either government and their agents carry out no work resulting in changes of environment of the frontier zone, excepting survey and demarcation work by the joint technical sub-commission. Measure 6 of the December statement has both sides refrain from constructing or enhancing any military infrastructure or fortifications beyond their own side.
A senior source in the Second Army Region, the Thai army command whose area takes in the Cambodian border, told reporters on 13 May that Thailand has not lost a single square inch, that road development along the border proceeds normally and wholly within Thai sovereignty, and that each side operates clearly inside its own sovereign area. Khaosod and MGR Online carried the account in the same words. It predates the earliest date this release alleges by more than two months and names none of the places in it.
Thai Post reported that on 20 August the director of the Thailand-Cambodia Joint Information Centre toured Prasat Ta Moan Thom in Phanom Dong Rak district, Surin, then Prasat Ta Krabei, which the Thai account names Ta Kwai, and Hill 350. It records a concrete road completed up to the temple, a road linking the temple to Hill 350, and a 147-step steel staircase up the hill. None of the three places is a place in the ministry’s release.
On 22 August the first page of the Thai foreign ministry’s border statements and announcements listing carried nine items, the most recent dated 14 August, and its Joint Information Centre listing carried nine items, the most recent dated 10 April. Nothing on those pages, and nothing returned by Thai-language web searches on the site and hill names, named Boundary Pillar 14, Ta Thong Mountain, Hill 278, Sra Em, Choam Ksan or Keo Sikha Kiri Svara Pagoda for any date from 26 July to 20 August, or answered the release. The Second Army Region’s own page, the armed forces headquarters channels and the Sisaket and Surin provincial channels were not read.