Cambodia Rejects Thai Claims of Stalled Border Talks, Urges End to 'Pretexts for Delays'

Cambodia has rejected Thailand’s claim that Phnom Penh stalled negotiations over the disputed land border, urging it to “stop creating pretexts for deliberate delays” and to resume demarcation talks. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow’ claim in Beijing that Cambodia’s decision to pursue the U.N. arbitrary process had “closed the door” for talks on the land border was “simply not true”. “Delaying the demarcation process indefinitely in order to render permanent and annex unlawfully occupied Cambodia territories is a flagrant violation of the UN, and ASEAN Charters,” read the statement posted on July 20. It said that the maritime boundary and the land boundary are governed by different legal frameworks and different mechanisms, and that Cambodia’s recourse to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) “concerns the maritime border alone”. Bangkok scrapped a 2001 pact on joint energy exploration in the Gulf of Thailand covering overlapping maritime claims with Cambodia despite its call for talks to continue. Both countries agreed to extend the timeline for the appointment of a chairperson to the Conciliation Commission of a U.N. arbitration process on July 19, with an analyst saying that the extension does not reduce confidence in a peaceful resolution. “The appointment of the chair is an important institutional step because it completes the Conciliation Commission and allows the proceedings to move forward,” said Sophal Ear, Cambodian-American political scientist and professor at Arizona State University. “The more important point is that neither Cambodia nor Thailand has withdrawn from the UNCLOS process, which indicates that both continue to see value in maintaining an international legal channel alongside their broader engagement,” he added. Sophal told CamboJA News that UNCLOS is designed to facilitate dialogue and produce recommendations, rather than impose legally-binding decisions. “That means its success depends as much on political willingness as on legal procedure.” In June, Cambodia started compulsory conciliation proceedings under UNCLOS after Thailand’s unilateral withdrawal from the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)—a framework to negotiate overlapping claims in the Gulf of Thailand and for joint hydrocarbon exploration. The boundary dispute centers on about 26,000 square km (10,000 square miles) of sea in the Gulf of Thailand, known as the Overlapping Claims Area. The zone is estimated to hold nearly 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and significant oil reserves valued at about $300 billion. Since February, Cambodia’s Joint Commission on Demarcation of Land Boundary (JBC) has several times informed the Thai side to resume talks on placing temporary markers at a few segments, including pillars 52 to 59 in Kamrieng district, but Thailand has repeatedly postponed the project.