Thailand to appoint conciliators for UN-backed mediation with Cambodia, foreign minister says

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BANGKOK: Thailand will appoint two conciliators and join a little-used United Nations arbitration process that Cambodia has invoked to help resolve a long-running maritime boundary dispute between the neighbours, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said on Friday (Jun 5).

Cambodia said on Tuesday it had launched a compulsory conciliation process under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), following Bangkok's decision last month to unilaterally terminate a 2001 bilateral agreement that provided a framework for talks over a disputed maritime belt.

For more than 25 years, Cambodia and Thailand have both laid claim to about 26,000 sq km of sea in the Gulf of Thailand, an area estimated to hold nearly 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and large quantities of oil, together valued at about US$300 billion.

"Both sides should have spoken bilaterally first," Sihasak told reporters in Bangkok, expressing dismay at Cambodia's move to utilise the mediation mechanism and use it to also address resource sharing.

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"If we had talked and there was no progress, then we could go to UNCLOS."

A spokesperson for the Cambodian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MINISTER SAYS CONCILIATION WILL NOT IMPROVE TIES

Bilateral relations between Thailand and Cambodia have been on edge following two rounds of intense border clashes last year that killed nearly 150 people and displaced at least 300,000 on both sides, although a December ceasefire is still holding.

Cambodia's decision to use compulsory conciliation - where a five-member panel delivers a set of non-binding recommendations - will not improve overall ties between the two countries, said Sihasak, who also serves as deputy prime minister.

"We simply don't agree with how they approached this," he said, referring to Cambodia's stance.

So far, the UN-backed mechanism has only been used by East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, to successfully resolve a decades-long maritime dispute with Australia. That process took a little less than two years.

"If we do this through bilateral talk in a friendly way, it may take shorter time to reach an amicable solution," Sihasak said. 

"Now, we don't know how long this will take."

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