Thailand has appointed two former presidents of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to its team for upcoming UN-backed conciliation talks with Cambodia, moving the process one step closer to formally beginning.
Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow announced that German jurist Rüdiger Wolfrum and South African maritime law expert Albert Hoffmann will serve as Thailand’s conciliators under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The appointments come more than two weeks after Cambodia launched compulsory conciliation proceedings over the two countries’ overlapping maritime claims in the Gulf of Thailand.
The dispute escalated after Thailand withdrew from the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding, which had provided a framework for negotiations and potential joint development of resources in the contested area.
Thailand initially objected to Cambodia’s decision to invoke the UNCLOS conciliation mechanism. Cambodia has since welcomed Bangkok’s decision to participate in the process, calling it a positive step toward a peaceful resolution.
Cambodia previously appointed Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as its agent in the proceedings, along with Danish diplomat Peter Taksøe-Jensen and French legal expert Jean-Marc Thouvenin as conciliators.
Under UNCLOS rules, each side appoints two conciliators. The four appointees must now agree on a fifth member, who will chair the commission. The chair must be selected within 30 days before formal proceedings can begin.
The dispute concerns a 26,000-square-kilometre area in the Gulf of Thailand known as the Overlapping Claims Area. The zone is believed to contain substantial oil and natural gas reserves, with some estimates valuing the resources at around USD 300 billion.
The commission’s recommendations will not be legally binding, but both sides have described the process as a peaceful mechanism for addressing the long-running dispute.
