Thailand will press ahead with a plan to restart talks with Cambodia to jointly explore petroleum reserves worth an estimated $300 billion in a disputed offshore area, disregarding opposition from some political groups and activists.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Monday negotiations will be held under a memorandum of understanding signed between Thailand and Cambodia in 2001, when the two countries formally agreed to talk about how to delimit and exploit a 26,000-square kilometer block in the Gulf of Thailand. The two countries have squabbled over the area since the 1970s.
The issue of the maritime dispute has become a hot-button issue in Thailand, with the opposition Palang Pracharath Party and pro-nationalist activists saying any talks under the 2001 agreement will cause Thailand to lose sovereignty over the island Ko Kut. While Cambodia drew a delineation line around the island in its unilateral continental shelf claim in 1972, Thailand rejected it and asserted the region as its own a year later.
