Posts falsely claim French president sided with Thailand in Cambodia border spat
As a diplomatic birth between Thailand and Cambodia, preventing itself following a deadly military confrontation on their common border, an image of French president Emmanuel Macron was shared alongside false affirmations, he presented a treaty giving Bangkok the control of the earth and an ancient temple in the disputed border region. Although Macron proposed to help to mediate the dispute between Thailand and the former French protectorate, no official report was concessible on each side of the territorial concessions.
“France brings a treaty to Thailand. Probably Cambodia must return Preah Vihear and other regions – 13/6/25”, reads the Thai language text superimposed on a shared tiktok video on June 15, 2025.
The text on the video – an image of the French president Emmanuel Macron holding a blue file – refers to a 900 -year -old temple at the Thai – Cambodian border which was the site of sporadic violence between the neighbors of Southeast Asia.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) judged in 2013 that the area around the old temple belonged to Cambodia (archived link).
Screenshot of the False Tiktok Post captured on July 8, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The image was also shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Tiktok and Youtube.
The complaint has surfaced in the context of a long -standing territorial dispute which has changed cross -border clashes in May, killing a Cambodian soldier.
Cambodia said it would file a complaint with the ICJ; Thailand, on the other hand, says that it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the court on this subject and prefers to solve the problem using the existing bilateral channels (archived here and here).
According to a Khmer Times report, Macron expressed a desire at the end of June to help publicize the border dispute between the former French protectorate and Thailand (archived link).
The local broadcaster NBT World also said that Macron spoke with the Thai Prime Minister now suspended Paetongtarn Shinawatra on June 27, who reiterated the kingdom’s commitment to a “peaceful resolution by bilateral dialogue” (archived here and here).
But from July 9, no official report on Macron presented a treaty that would cede the property of Preah Vihear or the surrounding area to Thailand.
Unrelated photo
An inverted image search on Google led to the same image of Macron in an article on Facebook published by a Cambodian government agency on June 11 (archived here and here).
Her legend indicates that she shows the meeting of Macron and Cambodian Hun Manet in Nice on June 10.
Comparison of screenshot of the image wrongly (on the left) and the photo shared by a Cambodian government agency (right)
A similar photo of the leaders’ meeting can be seen in the AFP archives.
According to a press release from the Cambodian government, the two leaders welcomed “increasing bilateral cooperation” (archived link).
A Khmer Times report added that they discussed Cambodia’s position on the resolution of the border dispute with Thailand, and Macron proposed to help by providing the two parts of the documents if necessary (archived link).
AFP has demystified other disinformation information related to the border dispute of Cambodia-Thailand.
