PUBLISHED : 16 Dec 2023 at 04:00
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs is urging the government to accelerate talks with Cambodia over overlapping maritime claims, saying a new joint technical panel should be formed to pursue negotiations.
Noppadon Patama, chair of the House committee, said yesterday the efforts to resolve maritime claim disputes have hit a stalemate but a recent change in leadership provides an opportunity for Thailand to speed up the discussions with Cambodia.
He said cordial relations between the new Thai and Cambodian prime ministers will allow both sides to come up with a policy framework that allows authorities concerned to work on and reach a consensus.
According to Mr Noppadon, due to the stalemate, leaders of Thailand and Cambodia should step up efforts to make use of valuable resources to ensure energy security.
The overlapping areas, covering more than 26,000 square metres in the Gulf of Thailand, are believed to have abundant oil and natural gas resources.
“The panel suggests that the government set up a new joint technical committee to hold talks on the overlapping areas in the interests of demarcation and joint development,” he said.
In 2009, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on maritime boundaries, which was signed in 2001 under the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, was revoked by the Abhisit Vejjajiva government after Thaksin was appointed as a Cambodian government adviser.