Thai Prime Minister Suspended Over Leaked Call With Cambodia’s Hun Sen

Thailand is once again facing political upheaval after Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended from office on Tuesday. The move comes after a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen triggered public backlash and a formal ethics investigation.

The Constitutional Court voted to temporarily remove Paetongtarn from her prime ministerial duties while it reviews a petition filed by 36 senators accusing her of violating ethical standards. The call, confirmed as authentic by both sides, has sparked anger across the country, further destabilizing an already fragile political landscape.

Paetongtarn, 38, has only been in office for 10 months, stepping in after the previous prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, was ousted in a similar ethics case. She will remain in the Cabinet as Culture Minister following a recent reshuffle.

The Call That Sparked a Firestorm

The phone conversation at the heart of the scandal took place on June 15. In the leaked recording, Paetongtarn referred to Hun Sen as “uncle”, appeared to criticize her own military, and urged the former Cambodian leader not to trust the “opposite side”—seemingly referring to a Thai army commander involved in a recent border clash that left a Cambodian soldier dead.

“If you want anything, just tell me, and I will take care of it,” she was heard saying.

The audio quickly went viral, with critics accusing Paetongtarn of undermining national sovereignty and cozying up to a foreign power at the expense of Thailand’s own military leadership. The scandal ignited a wave of anti-government protests in Bangkok over the weekend and pushed the Bhumjaithai Party—a key coalition partner—out of the government, dealing a major blow to Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai Party.

Mounting Pressure and Falling Support

The prime minister now faces a no-confidence vote in parliament and is grappling with plummeting approval ratings. Many opposition figures and even some allies are calling for her resignation, arguing that her comments damaged Thailand’s credibility and national security.

Paetongtarn addressed the controversy in a press conference shortly after her suspension:

“My intentions were more than 100% sincere—I acted for the country, to protect our sovereignty, safeguard the lives of our soldiers, and preserve peace in our nation,” she said. “I also want to apologize to all my fellow Thais who may feel uneasy or upset about this matter.”

She defended her words to Hun Sen as part of a “negotiation tactic” aimed at diffusing tensions along the Thai-Cambodian border. She added that the private call “shouldn’t have been made public” and emphasized that her comments were not an expression of loyalty to Cambodia.

A History of Political Instability

Thailand’s politics have been anything but stable in recent years. Paetongtarn’s own rise to power followed the Constitutional Court’s decision to remove former Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on similar ethics grounds.

The same court also made international headlines by dissolving the Move Forward Party—a popular progressive bloc that won the most seats in the 2023 election—and banning its leaders from politics for 10 years. These moves have fueled criticism that Thailand’s legal system is being used to sideline elected leaders and silence political opposition.

A Complicated Relationship with Cambodia

Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia are nothing new. The two neighbors share an 817-kilometer border, much of which was mapped during French colonial rule. Disputes over the demarcation have led to frequent military standoffs and diplomatic friction over the years.

Paetongtarn’s leaked call was reportedly an effort to de-escalate one such incident, but the optics of her language—and the perception of cozy back-channel diplomacy—have proven politically toxic.

As Thailand waits for the Constitutional Court’s final ruling, the country faces yet another period of political uncertainty—this time set off by a private phone call that became a very public crisis.