Thailand will send two representatives to the UN-backed talks, says Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow.
BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand said Friday, June 5, it will join a United Nations arbitration process chosen by Cambodia to resolve an ongoing maritime border dispute, but will suspend for now two other efforts to resolve their disputed borders.
This week, Cambodia launched a mandatory conciliation process under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), after Bangkok decided last month to unilaterally terminate the 2001 framework agreement on the disputed maritime zone.
For more than 25 years, both have claimed about 26,000 square kilometers (10,000 square miles) of sea in the Gulf of Thailand, estimated to contain about 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and large volumes of oil, with a total value of $300 billion.
Thailand will send two representatives to the UN-backed talks, Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said on Friday, but expressed dismay at Action Cambodia also use chat to answer resource sharing questions.
“I told my Cambodian colleagues, ‘Why don’t we give the talks a chance? Six months or something,'” he told Reuters in an interview.
“‘If we cannot make progress, then we can agree on the next step, which of course includes mandatory reconciliation, but also includes voluntary reconciliation.’
Sihasak said Cambodia made public its decision to use the mandatory mediation process on Tuesday, June 2, before formally notifying Thailand.
“And since June 2, we have not had any formal, formal discussions with the Cambodian side.”
A Cambodian government spokesman denied Sihasak’s claim that Thailand was not notified before the announcement. They shared pictures of the marked email and a copy of the notification paper which they said was delivered on Tuesday morning.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
In response to questions from Reuters, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said bilateral efforts to resolve the dispute had ended, leading to Cambodia’s choice.
“Cambodia hopes that the Thai government will cooperate with this process in good faith,” he said.
No more bilateral talks with Cambodia, Thai PM says
Despite joining the mediation, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Bangkok will not hold any other bilateral talks, including those to manage and resolve land border issues.
“We will use UNCLOS, which means from now on there will be no more negotiations…or other forms of cooperation,” he added. “We will not yet discuss the restoration of the relationship.”
All border gates between Thailand and Cambodia would remain closed, he said.
Relations have been straining after two rounds of fierce border fighting last year that killed nearly 150 people and displaced 300,000 others from both sides, but a December ceasefire remains in place.
Cambodia’s option of mandatory mediation, where a five-member panel makes non-binding recommendations, will not improve overall relations between the two countries, said Sihasak, who is also Thailand’s deputy prime minister.
“We do not agree with the way they handled this issue,” he said.
So far, only East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, has used a UN-backed process to successfully resolve a decades-long maritime dispute with Australia, lasting less than two years.
“If we do this through bilateral talks in a friendly way, it may take less time to reach an amicable solution,” Sihasak said. “Now, we don’t know how long this will take.” – Rappler.com
