Transcript of the above video: 

It is my unfortunate, at this point I think it is almost kind of a duty incumbent upon me, sort of stems from the nature of this channel I guess to make videos updating the situation along the border. I did the research this morning, I'm standing here, this video should go up by 11:45 am July 27, 2025. Hopefully it will go up earlier, but by 11:45 I think it should definitely be up. As of the time of this video, the source material that I am going to be citing had been about 6 hours old; that was as new as I could get it. There is some stuff coming out of the Thai language press that is a little bit fresher but I am kind of unable to verify the veracity. As I think I have made clear in prior videos, I don't view myself as a press man or a news man per se, although starting to drift a little bit more in that direction. I prefer to cite publications that have vetted their information and things. Now I am going to do another video at the same time as we are going to do this one, contemporaneously with this one, where I am going to get into some clarifications about prior videos we have done most notably on Thai driving licenses, also having to do with some of the situation involving the TDAC and some stuff like that. But understand I make those videos based on information as it is coming out and it looks pretty firm. I am happy to clarify later. That's the point of this channel. I have gotten a lot of hate in lot of the comments. I am at the point now where I am at the point of just not reading the comments and not even having any of my stuff read the comments. It's not always me that may chime in, especially when somebody asks or something we will tell you, 'hey if you have got an inquiry, send us an email." But I am not perfect; I've never claimed to be perfect and I try to update myself as and when it requires further clarification but with regard to this new stuff, I am trying to stick to sources that are vetted and as verified as I can get them and also we want it to be fresh, but I am not trying to get the hottest news. That's not the purpose of the channel. The purpose of the channel is to provide clarified information as best we can, so that's what we are getting to here. 

Really quickly before I jump in here, I am doing long-form analysis of this stuff in our paid news service, how this interacts, this whole situation, along with many other things that are going on here in Thailand most assuredly in the political sphere as well, how that interacts with expat world, just generally how that's playing out for things here in Southeast Asia. If you are interested in that please feel free to email us to get on the mailing list, [email protected]. Very quickly before I jump in as well, as I have said in other videos, my better half and I have set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, Pancake Palace. Breakfast anytime including pancakes and American Diner style food; link is in the description below for that. 

That said, I think we need to jump into this. I thought of making this, I have been researching since early this morning to find the best source, if only one. I was initially going to do sort of a mix together of some stuff coming out of Bangkok Post, but then I found this article from Reuters which as of the time I am reading it, it is about 6 hours old. By the time this comes out it should be no more than 8. So reuters.com: Trump says Thailand Cambodia agreed to hold immediate cease fire talks. Quoting directly: "SISAKET, Thailand/Washington, July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand had agreed to meet immediately to quickly work out a ceasefire, as he sought to broker peace after 3 days of fighting along the border. Thailand's acting Prime Minister,  Phumtham Wechayachai, thanked Trump and said Thailand "agrees in principle to have a ceasefire in place" but "would like to see sincere intention from the Cambodian side." In another thing I had read, there had been, it was couched as yeah Thailand agrees to cease fire in principal but we would like to see them stopping hostilities as sort of a precursor to getting into a ceasefire. My immediate thinking was like yeah, it is kind of concomitant with a ceasefire, to maybe cease firing, and then we will have a talk. Not trying to be snarky with that. I mean I don't think that is an unreasonable request under these circumstances. And to be clear, and I will get into numbers here in a minute, but I have been walking around for 2 days kind of stunned and in a daze and I have talked to a lot of Thais here in Bangkok, just across a broad spectrum, talking to people in the food and beverage industry, talking to Thais just sort out on the street, the sort of vendors and things, talking to members of my staff, folks that are more in kind of a white collar sort of background, everybody is pretty down about what's going on, and obviously we should be. I believe as of the time of this video, we have lost 3 service personnel, 3 uniformed service personnel along the border which they sacrificed it all for the country. What can you say? Meanwhile, at the time that I heard that number, it had confirmed that there were another 13 casualties lost along the border. I'll get into further numbers here in this piece but yeah, this is trying. I mean Thailand, we are going through some hard times here. This isn't good.

That said, quoting further: "Phumtham also said he had asked Trump "to convey to the Cambodian side that Thailand wants to convene a bilateral dialogue as soon as possible to bring forth measures and procedures for the ceasefire and the eventual peaceful resolution of the conflict." This word 'bilateral' keeps coming up and I think this is something that, I've been heavily critical and vocal in my criticism of Mr. Phumtham for now, you're not going to see me waver if I have issues with him domestically or whatever, but I do think he is representing the country right now and it looks to me like he is doing a competent job of that at least for this interim while he's still acting PM. This word 'bilateral' keeps coming up and I have seen in some, especially foreign outlets that that's kind of being poo pooed or eschewed that the Thais want to do this bilaterally. Well candidly, if you know the history of this, outside forces, outside powers are what got these two groups into this. Outside intervention then imposed the original boundaries just sort of by Fiat some hundred odd years ago - a little more than that - are the reason that we are having these conflicts now. So, I tend to agree with the Thai side, say whatever you want on that - maybe I have my own inherent biases due to my history and background here - but to my mind it makes sense that these two powers alone should be the ones making the arrangements regarding how to end this conflict and how to have lasting peace. 

Now could some third party for example as we will get into, as we further go through citing this, say Malaysia, who I believe is chairing ASEAN right now, act as a third party to just host a venue for a discussion; that's one thing, just sort of hosting a venue. But this whole notion of the International Court of Justice or any sort of outside arbiter, I know before she got suspended Paetongtarn was talking to Emmanuel Macron about it over in France. Quite frankly, as a Thai, I don't want any French input in this. We have had enough French input in all of this. We are dealing with the legacy of French input over here. My point being, and I don't wish to get too hyperbolic, but I don't think it is unreasonable to want bilateral discussion. I do think that is the best way to handle this. That said, quoting further: "More than 30 people have been killed and more than 130,000 people displaced in the worst fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours in 13 years." I'm not going to go too far into this. I have another video where I am going to get more political in the political analysis, but it is worth pointing out that for a decade of that 13 years we were under the Generals over here in Thailand - the 'Uncles' it was called - and we didn't have these problems. I'm somewhat, I won't say convinced, but I have my suspicions that some of this conflict at least on the Thai side may have at least some of its origins in a desire to maybe create distraction from local domestic political problems by jingoism along the border or jingoism about the border. 

Now that said, we are now at a different place and the nation needs to unify and we need to get behind our troops and our boys that are at the frontier absolutely, I completely believe that. But worth pointing out that of the past 13 years, 10 years of which we had a very different system domestically here in Thailand and we did not have these border problems. It's just a fact. That said, quoting further: "Before Trump spoke to the two leaders, Thai-Cambodian border clashes persisted into a third day and new flashpoints emerged as both sides said they had acted in self-defense in the dispute and called on the other to cease fighting and start negotiations." Well, and I am hoping, maybe Mr. Trump's intervention will get us out of this feedback loop of what "you are doing it, no, you are doing it." Well yeah, we get it. It's a conflict. Quoting further: "Trump offered no details on the ceasefire negotiations he said Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to hold. The White House did not immediately respond to questions on the timing and venue for talks and the Thai and Cambodian Embassies in Washington also did not immediately respond. As of Saturday, Thailand said seven soldiers" (now 7 soldiers - wow) "and 13 civilians have been killed." Wow, seven. Last I checked it was 3, and I saw this when I was citing and I must have just overlooked that. God that's sad, 13 civilians too. I mean just terrible. "While Cambodia said five soldiers and eight civilians had been killed." Yeah, nobody wants any, this is just yeah, it's just not good. 

Quoting further: "Trump's direct involvement followed U.S. calls for restraint on both sides. He said he spoke to each leader and relayed messages back and forth. Quote: "They have agreed to immediately meet and quickly work out a Ceasefire, and ultimately, PEACE," Trump wrote, saying both countries wanted to get back to the "Trading Table." He has sought to reach separate deals with dozens of countries by August 1 in response to his announcement of wide-ranging tariffs on imports to the U.S."

Yeah, not to get too deep into the tariff thing, but I wonder if having that in the background is the best or most conducive thing for peace under the circumstances, just one man's opinion. Maybe a reprieve for both sides on having to make a tariff deal; we have this deadline of August 1 looming. I have to imagine that maybe another month reprieve from making a deal on either side; on the Cambodian and the Thai side. If a deal can't be struck maybe one more month sort of extension for those two jurisdictions while we work this out -just a suggestion. That said, quoting further: “Quote: When all is done, and Peace is at hand, I look forward to concluding our Trading Agreements with both! Trump said.” Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, said he would continue to push a ceasefire proposal. Cambodia has  backed Anwar’s plan, while Thailand has said it agreed with it in principle." And again, a third-party plan, I don't know. And Thailand has officially sort of said, ‘we agree in principle’. My thinking here is maybe just a third party to create venue to talk without the whole pushing in some outside agenda. The Thais and the Cambodians need to just hammer out a deal between themselves. I view the problem to this point having stemmed from outside plans being imposed upon the two is kind of the issue.

That said, quoting further: "SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING. Thailand's UN Ambassador told a security council meeting on Friday that soldiers had been injured by newly planted landmines in Thai territory on two occasions since mid-July - claims Cambodia has strongly denied - and said Cambodia had then launched attacks on Thursday morning."

So, yeah this has just been one set of bad news after another watching it from sitting down here in Bangkok. And I am hopeful. I am hopeful Mr. Trump's intervention may spur both sides to sit down and come up with at least a ceasefire so we can then move toward a more comprehensive deal that everybody can agree with and we can move on. Lot of loss of life here on both sides and I myself as a Thai, it is hard to watch. I didn't even know it was seven, I guess I'd overlooked that; I blocked that out when I was preparing this citation to make this video. But I don't know how this is going to work out. I'm hoping it works out quickly and I am hoping it works out so that we cease seeing all of this killing and again this displacement of all of these people from these border areas. 

As I said previously, I am going to do some deeper dives into all of this, how it impacts expat land. One big thing, presume we are not going to be seeing any Border Running going on on the Cambodian border and that, for expat land is kind of a big deal actually, because it's one of the easier borders for the bulk of folks that live in Bangkok and the Eastern corridor - so that's Cholburi, Pattaya, Bangkok, and everywhere in between. That is a lot of the expat community in Thailand that lives in sort of that area. That has always proven to be the most straightforward border to use for purposes of border running. So presume that that is off the table, at least effectively. Now I expect you may hear things intermittently especially if we do get a ceasefire that, “well the border is back open”, but it could be intermittent. It could open and close. If I was looking for a more solid” if you will, solid in quotes, a more stable, a more certain border to use for Border Running purposes, other places like Laos, maybe even Myanmar, Malaysia, again depending on where you are physically located in Thailand, these may be more viable options compared to Cambodia. That said, as sad as this news is, I will certainly be keeping people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.