Cambodia said on Tuesday it had launched a compulsory conciliation process under international law aimed at resolving a long-running maritime boundary dispute with Thailand and had informed the United Nations and Bangkok.
The move follows a Thai government decision last month to unilaterally terminate a 2001 agreement with Cambodia that provided a framework for negotiations over the disputed area in the Gulf of Thailand where the two countries' maritime claims 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.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who made the cancellation of the 2001 pact part of his February election campaign, said he was not aware that Cambodia had initiated the conciliation process.
"Thailand has not yet determined when it will proceed further," he told reporters.
Cambodia's move underlines the potential divergence between the neighbours in resolving long-standing border disputes though a fragile ceasefire that ended last year's deadly land border conflict between them continues to hold.
$300 Billion in Energy Resources
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, a compulsory conciliation process allows a panel of independent experts to examine a dispute and make recommendations, although its findings are not legally binding on either party.
Thailand has previously said it would use UNCLOS as a reference framework while pursuing direct negotiations with Cambodia on maritime boundary demarcation. Anutin again referenced UNCLOS on Tuesday.
The maritime dispute relates to approximately 26,000 sq km of sea in the Gulf of Thailand, known as the Overlapping Claims Area (OCA), which is estimated to hold nearly 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and large quantities of oil, worth about $300 billion.
The oil shock from the Iran conflict has created renewed urgency to resolve the dispute and unlock the undersea energy resources, Cambodia's energy minister told Reuters last week.
Process to be Overseen by UN Chief
Cambodia has appointed Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as its agent for the proceedings, alongside Danish diplomat Peter Taksøe-Jensen and French academic Jean-Marc Thouvenin as conciliators, the government said in a statement.
"Thailand now has 21 days to appoint two of its own conciliators. The conciliators will then select a chair to finalise a conciliation commission, overseen by the UN Secretary-General," the statement added.
The Thai foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Thailand has repeatedly rejected Cambodian efforts to resolve disputes through international mechanisms, including the International Court of Justice, insisting instead on bilateral negotiations.
A ceasefire has been in place between the two countries since late December following two rounds of fighting along stretches of their 817-km (508-mile) land border last year, the first of which ended after an intervention by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Both sides have accused the other of initiating the fighting, which killed nearly 150 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
(Reuters - Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by John Mair, David Stanway and Kate Mayberry)
AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week