Anutin rules out further talks as Thailand enters UNCLOS process

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow will lead Thailand’s team in the UNCLOS process with Cambodia, insisting that Bangkok will not discuss any other issues, including restoring relations or reopening border checkpoints.

Speaking at Government House in Bangkok on Friday (June 5), Anutin addressed the matter after Sihasak, Defence Minister Gen Adul Boonthumjaroen and army chief Gen Pana Klaewplodthuk met him for discussions.

Anutin said the talks focused on the compulsory conciliation process under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, with Cambodia. Thailand, he confirmed, would send representatives into the process, with Sihasak taking charge of the matter.

“Thailand must not lose any existing interests. This concerns sovereignty, rights and other matters, and we must protect our national interests as much as we possibly can,” he stressed.

The prime minister noted that the UNCLOS process still involved several further steps. When the time was appropriate, he said, Sihasak would explain the details, as the matter required specific expertise in international law and treaty obligations.

Asked whether he was concerned that Cambodia had often sought to seize the initiative on the international stage, Anutin replied: “We have done nothing wrong, so why should we be worried?”

He argued that Thailand should not waste time chasing after others, as the country had its own sovereignty and the capability to defend that sovereignty and protect its territory.

“There is no need for us to be shaken. In principle, those who have to run here and there are the ones trying to seek legitimacy. Why do they have to seek legitimacy? Because there is illegitimacy involved,” Anutin said.

“We are confident in our own legitimacy, so we do not need to run anywhere. We can explain our position to everyone, every side, and even to people in our own country,” he added.

The prime minister warned that if Cambodia refused to accept the UNCLOS process, the matter could not move forward. He said Cambodia itself had declared that it accepted the use of the UNCLOS framework, adding that both Thailand and Cambodia are parties to the convention and should therefore proceed through this mechanism.

“We will not discuss anything else — not the Joint Boundary Commission, not the General Border Committee, not the restoration of relations. There is no need to talk about those matters yet. The border checkpoints will not be reopened. That is our position,” he said.

Anutin also rejected suggestions that Thailand had simply cancelled MOU44, which concerns the overlapping maritime continental shelf area, arguing that the framework under MOU44 had made no progress for 25 years and therefore needed to be reshaped.

As for MOU43, which covers the survey and demarcation of the land boundary, he said the process had already advanced by more than 60%, so it should continue in line with international practice.