Border Conflict For Cambodia Withdraws All Contingents From The 2025 SEA Games

The Cambodian contingent was finally withdrawn from the 2025 SEA Games due to a border conflict with Thailand (Instagram/@olympic.cam).

JAKARTA Cambodia has decided to withdraw all athletes and officials from the 2025 SEA Games for fear of possible travel disruptions if the border conflict with Thailand worsens.

The announcement was made on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, the day after the opening ceremony of the 33rd SEA Games which took place at the Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, WIB night.

"It is confirmed that Cambodia has withdrawn," said Akarin Hiranprueck, a senior SEA Games official, as quoted by Bangkok Post.

The security situation in the border areas of Thailand and Cambodia has heated up again in recent days. The head of the Cambodian National Olympic Committee (NOCC), Vath Chamrouun, in a letter to the SEA Games Federation said the decision was made solely for the safety of athletes.

"Due to serious concerns and requests from the athletes' families to repatriate their relatives immediately, the NOCC must withdraw the entire delegation and arrange their return to Cambodia for security reasons," Chamroeun wrote.

Cambodia previously reduced participation in just 12 sports, with a total of 137 athletes and officials. As many as 30 members of the Cambodian delegation even attended the opening ceremony of the biennial multi-branch sporting event.

However, after the opening ceremony ended in the early hours of local time, Chamrouun told the chairman of the SEA Games, Chaiyapak Siriwat, that athletes' parents were worried about possible travel disruptions if the conflict on the border worsened.

He said they were afraid their children would not be able to return home after the competition because of the possibility of a flight cancellation between the two neighboring countries.

According to the authorities of the two countries, the heat of relations between Thailand and Cambodia in recent days has killed at least 11 soldiers and civilians from both sides. The latest conflict on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, has even expanded to five provinces in both countries.

Based on official information, the clashes have been the deadliest since the five-day battle in July 2025 that killed dozens of people before a fragile ceasefire was agreed upon thanks to the intervention of the then President of the United States, Donald Trump.

The governments of Thailand and Cambodia have reported more than 500,000 people have been displaced since tensions broke out again. That figure surpassed the number of refugees in the previous incident in the same year.