NewsTracker Answers for week of July 28, 2025

Q: More than 30 people were killed and 200,000 evacuated last week in the latest clash of a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand that has lasted more than 100 years. Where are the Southeast Asian nations of Thailand and Cambodia?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The border dispute dates back to 1907 when the independent Kingdom of Siam (renamed Thailand in 1939) signed a border treaty with which colonial power in Southeast Asia?

A. British

B. Dutch

C. French

D. Spanish


C. Thailand, or Siam, is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonized by Europeans. Cambodia was part of the French Indochina Colony when the treaty covering the 500-mile border was signed. Siam maintained its independence in the colonial period by serving as a buffer state between rival French and British claims.


Q: Ancient religious sites are part of the dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. Which Asian religious group built those sites?

A. Buddhists

B. Hindus

C. Muslims

D. Taoists


B. Hinduism, the oldest major religion, spread through most of Southeast Asia more than 1,000 years ago. It was replaced by another Indian religion, Buddhism, in much of the Indochinese Peninsula. Arab traders from West Asia introduced Islam to Southeast Asia, where it became the region's largest religion. Taoism is a much smaller religion in China.


Q: Many of the ancient Hindu temples in Southeast Asia were built by the Khmer Empire, which was based in which modern nation?

A. Cambodia

B. Laos

C. Myanmar (Burma)

D. Thailand


A. The capital of the Khmer Empire was Angkor in Cambodia. The empire ruled much of the Indochinese Peninsula from the 9th to the 15th centuries. It built Hindu temples throughout its territory, including what is now Thailand. Nearly all Cambodians are in the Khmer-speaking ethnic group, and nearly all the people in Thailand are members of the Thai-speaking ethnic group.


Q: The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand planned to discuss a ceasefire at a meeting in which nation that borders Thailand to the southwest?

A. Brunei

B. Indonesia

C. Laos

D. Malaysia


D. The prime ministers of the two countries agreed to meet in Malaysia, which borders Thailand on the Malay Peninsula. Malaysia is the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional forum of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Those nations have more than 600 million people.