Cambodia, Thailand bring sea dispute and decades of baggage to talks

Cambodia seeks a maritime boundary or shared offshore resources, while Thailand disputes its claims. U.N.-backed international conciliators can help broker a deal but can't impose one.(CN) — Cambodia and Thailand sought help dividing the sea before international conciliators in Singapore on Tuesday but were quicker to divide the blame over decades of failed talks.The neighboring Southeast Asian countries claim rights to some of the same seabed in the Gulf of Thailand, where lucrative offshore energy resources including natural gas and other hydrocarbons remain untapped. Cambodia wants a five-member panel supported by the Permanent Court of Arbitration to help negotiate a maritime boundary or a deal to share those resources. Thailand also seeks a negotiated boundary but rejects Cambodia’s claim as legally baseless.The international conciliators hear the countries’ claims and objections, then propose terms for a deal. The Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, Netherlands, provides administrative support. The panel will convene through Wednesday.The process operates under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which sets rules for ocean use and allows certain maritime boundary disputes to go to compulsory conciliation when negotiations fail. Countries can be required to participate, but the panel cannot impose a settlement.Cambodia set out its seabed claim in 1972, followed by Thailand’s royal proclamation in 1973. Maritime discussions began in April 1995, and the countries adopted a negotiating framework in 2001, according to Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn. Neither a boundary agreement nor a joint development deal followed, he said.Thailand scrapped the framework on May 5 after relations deteriorated dramatically. The Southeast Asian neighbors fought armed combat over competing claims to territory along the land border in July and December 2025. Several dozen civilians and soldiers on both sides were killed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.Cambodia turned to international conciliators the following month, a step Sokhonn attributed to Thailand’s withdrawal. He said offshore resources could fuel industrial growth in a country still rebuilding from decades of devastation.“Cambodia sees this conciliation process as a means to rebuild trust, not as a form of escalation,” he said.Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said 25 years had bought just two rounds of official talks. Dropping the framework was meant to get negotiations moving, he argued. He said he had offered six months of direct talks, followed by conciliation together if no deal emerged. Cambodia, he contended, had ignored the offer.Phuangketkeow stressed that the proceedings concern rights at sea, not ownership of land, including Ko Kut island. But both ministers brought grievances over fighting on land into their opening statements.Phuangketkeow accused Cambodia of undermining trust through public claims against Thailand. He cited a leaked call between their leaders, Cambodian rocket attacks that killed Thai civilians and landmines he attributed to Cambodia. Sokhonn called for both countries to honor existing bilateral agreements to help more than 20,000 displaced villagers return home and preserve cultural sites damaged in fighting.Thailand has been averse to having territorial issues decided by third parties rather than handled bilaterally. It has long seen a 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice awarding Cambodia the hilltop Preah Vihear temple along their border to be unfair, contributing to ongoing tensions between the neighbors.Thailand nevertheless pledged to participate constructively. Phuangketkeow said the proceedings would affect relations long after they ended. “This process is not an exercise in zero-sum diplomacy,” he said.Sokhonn pointed to conciliation between Timor-Leste and Australia, which produced a maritime treaty, as a model. Cambodia is willing to share resources pending a final boundary agreement. If neither deal emerges, it asks the panel to recommend terms for further negotiations.No date for a report was announced at the opening session. The conciliators can propose where to draw the line; making it an agreed boundary remains up to both governments.Courthouse News reporter Eunseo Hong is based in the Netherlands.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads