The House committee on foreign affairs is urging the government to accelerate talks with Cambodia over overlapping maritime claims, saying a new technical panel should be formed to pursue negotiations.
Efforts to resolve maritime claims have hit a stalemate but a recent change in leadership provides an opportunity for a new start, committee chairman Noppadon Patama said on Friday.
He said cordial relations between the new Thai and Cambodian prime ministers — Srettha Thavisin and Hun Manet — would allow both sides to come up with a policy framework that allows authorities pursue a consensus.
Progress in negotiations could help both nations jointly develop the disputed area and make use of valuable resources to ensure energy security, said Mr Noppadon.
The overlapping area, covering more than 26,000 square kilometres in the Gulf of Thailand, is believed to have abundant resources of oil and natural gas.
“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.
Mr Noppadon made the comment after a meeting with representatives from the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Energy and the navy on the progress and obstacles in negotiating with Cambodia.
In 2009, a memorandum of understanding on maritime boundaries, which was signed in 2001 under the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, was revoked by the Abhisit Vejjajiva government after Thaksin was appointed as a Cambodian government adviser.
The MoU outlined a framework for settling maritime disputes in the Gulf. The document provided for part of the overlapping area to be demarcated, and another part to become a “joint development area” for co-operation in oil and gas exploration, similar to an approach pursued successfully by Thailand and Malaysia.