BANGKOK, June 16 (Reuters) – Thailand has appointed conciliators from South Africa and Germany for a U.N. arbitration process that was initiated by Cambodia to resolve a long-running maritime dispute, Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow told reporters on Tuesday.
Cambodia launched the compulsory conciliation process under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) earlier this month, after Thailand had unilaterally ended a 2001 agreement that provided a framework for negotiations over the disputed area in the Gulf of Thailand.
Thailand appointed German jurist Rüdiger Wolfrum and South African maritime law expert Albert Hoffman as conciliators, the foreign ministry said.
The Cambodian government said it “welcomes the Thai Government’s announcement that it has decided to participate in the conciliation process.”
Earlier, Cambodia had appointed its Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as its agent for the proceedings, alongside Danish diplomat Peter Taksøe-Jensen and French academic Jean-Marc Thouvenin as conciliators.
The conciliators will have to meet within 30 days to choose a chairperson before commencing proceedings.
The dispute relates to approximately 26,000 sq km (10,000 sq miles) of sea in the Gulf of Thailand, known as the Overlapping Claims Area, which is estimated to hold nearly 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and large quantities of oil, worth about $300 billion.
Ties between the Southeast Asian neighbours have been on edge after two rounds of intense border clashes last year killed nearly 150 people and displaced at least 300,000 on both sides, but a December ceasefire still holds.
(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon, Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng, Editing by John Mair)
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