Cambodia announced Tuesday that it has notified both the United Nations and Thailand of its decision to begin a mandatory conciliation procedure under international law to resolve an ongoing maritime boundary disagreement with Thailand.
This action comes after Thailand’s government chose last month to unilaterally end a 2001 accord with Cambodia that had established a negotiation framework for the contested region in the Gulf of Thailand where both nations’ maritime territories overlap.
“We have taken this step to protect Cambodia’s sovereignty and maritime rights in accordance with international law,” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said.
Thailand’s foreign ministry has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Thailand’s decision to cancel the agreement was part of a campaign promise made by Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who secured re-election in February amid rising nationalist feelings, following two deadly military confrontations between the nations last year along their contested border.
$300 BILLION IN ENERGY RESOURCES
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as UNCLOS, permits a mandatory conciliation procedure where a group of independent specialists can review a disagreement and provide recommendations, though their conclusions are not legally enforceable for either nation.
Thailand has previously stated it would reference UNCLOS while pursuing direct talks with Cambodia regarding maritime boundary determination.
Both nations claim roughly 26,000 square kilometers of ocean in the Gulf of Thailand, called the Overlapping Claims Area (OCA), which experts believe contains nearly 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and substantial oil reserves, valued at approximately $300 billion.
The oil shock from the Iran conflict has heightened the need to resolve the disagreement and access the underwater energy reserves, Cambodia’s energy minister told Reuters last week.
PROCESS TO BE OVERSEEN BY UN CHIEF
Cambodia has designated Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as its representative for the proceedings, along with Danish diplomat Peter Taksøe-Jensen and French academic Jean-Marc Thouvenin to serve as conciliators, according to a government statement.
“Thailand now has 21 days to appoint two of its own conciliators. The conciliators will then select a chair to finalize a conciliation commission, overseen by the UN Secretary-General,” the statement added.
Thailand has consistently refused Cambodian attempts to resolve disagreements through international bodies, including the International Court of Justice, maintaining that such matters should be addressed through direct bilateral discussions.
A truce has remained in effect between the two nations since late December after two periods of combat along portions of their 817-kilometer (508-mile) border last year, with the first ending following intervention by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Each side has blamed the other for starting the violence, which resulted in nearly 150 deaths and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
