New committee to oversee talks on overlapping claimed area
The visit to Cambodia by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin helped open the potential for renewed negotiations with Thailand’s eastern neighbour over the overlapping claimed area (OCA) in the upper part of the Gulf of Thailand, the Foreign Affairs ministry said.
Srettha arrived in Cambodia on Thursday and attended a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh.
Although the OCA was not on the meeting agenda, which mostly covered trade and economic cooperation, the Cambodian side raised the controversial topic that has been dragging on since 1969, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on Thursday.
PM Srettha promised that Thailand will form a new committee to oversee the OCA negotiations with Cambodia, he added,
Under the previous government, the OCA negotiations were the responsibility of the Thai-Cambodian joint technical committee, the Thai side of which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan.
Parnpree said the structure of the new committee would undergo an overhaul and include task forces on marine border separation and joint development, with the Foreign Affairs ministry acting as the main agency.
The 26,000-square-kilometre overlapping claimed area, located in the upper part of the Gulf of Thailand, is estimated to have natural gas valued at 3.5 trillion baht and oil worth 1.5 trillion baht, according to Chevron, a US petroleum company which won the concession contracts from both Thailand and Cambodia.
The ministry believes that successful negotiations over the OCA could result in additional liquid natural gas (LNG) for both countries. Thailand has been importing LNG for electricity generation, although the price tends to fluctuate especially during winter when the global demand for energy rises.
