PUBLISHED: 10 Apr 2024 at 17: 39
The Ombudsman has been asked to submit a petition to the Constitutional Court to determine whether the Thai-Cambodgee memorandum of understanding ( MoU) for joint development in the Gulf of Thailand is in violation of the Thai constitution.
Palang Pracharath Party ( PPRP ) deputy leader Paiboon Nititawan , made the request to the Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday.
The 2001 MoU had not been approved by the Thai parliament before it was signed, which resulted in it , “having no legitimate impact from inception”, according to Mr Paiboon’s complaint to the Ombudsman.
He identified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs as the first and second events to be held accountable for what he thought was a constitutional violation.
The two parties continued to use the MoU as a guide to what had been agreed by both countries regarding the 26, 000 square kilometers of regional waters in the Gulf of Thailand, which Thailand had independence over, despite earlier acknowledging that the MoU had never won parliament acceptance.
The two nations ‘ attempts to come to terms with the 2001 MoU were being referenced whenever there was an estimated 20 trillion baht worth of potential shared natural resources in these regional waters, he claimed.
Mr. Paiboon stated that he wanted the court to order the office and the government to stop using the MoU in disputes involving the boundary of the regional waters.
He claimed that Thailand would be in a better place when new issues arise over Thai-Cambodge overlapping claims if the judge rules the 2001 MoU to be illegal and having no legal effect on the grounds that it was inadequate from the beginning. As stated in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, this would be the case when new issues arise over Thai-Cambodge claims overlap.  ,
He claimed that Cambodia had often cited the MoU from 2001 to support its claim that Thailand had formally recognized these regional waters as mutual claims areas.
If the Cambodian government ca n’t agree that the 2001 MoU is valid, Mr. Paiboon also urged the Thai government to contact the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany.