Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Monday (Nov 4) that negotiations will be held under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Thailand and Cambodia in 2001, when the two countries formally agreed to talk about how to delimit and exploit a 26,000-square kilometre block in the Gulf of Thailand. The two countries have squabbled over the area since the 1970s. 

The issue of the maritime dispute has become a hot-button issue in Thailand, with the opposition Palang Pracharath Party and pro-nationalist activists saying any talks under the 2001 agreement will cause Thailand to lose sovereignty over the island Ko Kut. While Cambodia drew a delineation line around the island in its unilateral continental shelf claim in 1972, Thailand rejected it and asserted the region as its own a year later. 

The island is not in any danger of being claimed by Cambodia, and Thailand cannot just call off the agreement unilaterally, Paetongtarn told reporters after a meeting with coalition parties over the issue. The agreement dictated that territorial claims must be discussed at the same time as joint resource development of the area that’s estimated to contain about 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of crude oil. 

“The MOU was an agreement to negotiate. The negotiations will be conducted by committees from the two sides,” Paetongtarn said, adding that her new government is in the process of forming a new technical committee to represent Thailand in the negotiations. “Ko Kut won’t be a part of this negotiation at all. There’s no need to worry about this. Ko Kut will still belong to Thailand, no matter what.” 

The overlapping claims area issue resurfaced after Paetongtarn made a policy statement to the parliament in September, which listed negotiations with Cambodia as one of her administration’s top 10 urgent goals, as the country seeks to boost its dwindling natural gas reserves and contain electricity prices and a ballooning fuel imports bill.

Last week, the opposition Palang Pracharath urged Paetongtarn to scrap the 2001 agreement signed during the administration of her father Thaksin Shinawatra, and cease all attempts to negotiate with Cambodia over joint explorations. 

The negotiation process likely won’t be easy, given the history of diplomatic spats and sensitivities on both sides on ceding sovereignty. From 2001, Thailand and Cambodia have only held two formal meetings on the issue, according to Suphanvasa Chotikajan Tang, director-general of the Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs. 

For Thailand, a precedent exists for joint exploration. In 1979, it agreed with Malaysia on common boundaries in the lower Gulf of Thailand, and marked a relatively small area of 7,250 square kilometres for an ongoing joint development project. This will be a model for Thailand in the dispute with Cambodia, said Suphanvasa in a separate briefing on Monday. 

“As we were brothers drinking from the same well, we agreed on a joint development area, instead of fighting with each other on the remaining overlapping claims,” Suphanvasa told reporters. “We’ve done this successfully before, and we’re hoping to use the same approach with Cambodia.” 

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