Cambodia, Thailand bring sea dispute and decades of baggage to talks

Cambodia and Thailand opened conciliation talks in Singapore over disputed seabed in the Gulf of Thailand, home to untapped natural gas and other resources. Cambodia wants a five-member panel backed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration to negotiate a boundary or resource-sharing deal; Thailand also wants a boundary but calls Cambodia's claim baseless.

The dispute dates to competing 1972 and 1973 claims, with talks that produced a 2001 negotiating framework but no boundary agreement. Thailand scrapped that framework in May after armed clashes along the land border in 2025 killed dozens and displaced hundreds of thousands; Cambodia brought the matter to conciliators the following month.

Cambodia's foreign minister called the process a way to rebuild trust; Thailand's foreign minister said 25 years produced only two rounds of talks and that dropping the framework was meant to force movement. Both ministers used the seabed hearing to air grievances over the land fighting, including accusations of rocket attacks, landmines, and a leaked phone call, even as officials stressed the proceedings only concern maritime rights.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.