1. Thailand takes note of the submission of a request by Cambodia to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 28 April 2011 and will take appropriate steps in accordance with its rights under international law.
2. Thailand is not surprised by this latest move by Cambodia in light of the latter’s pattern of behaviors and clear motives in the past few months, especially since 22 April 2011.
3. Thailand regrets that Cambodia decided to completely disregard progress being made in various tracks as follows:
3.1 Just hours before the Cambodian submission at The Hague, Thai and Cambodian regional military commanders reached a preliminary common understanding to instruct respective troops to refrain from further hostilities at a border area of Surin Province, Thailand, and that boundary negotiations should best be left to negotiators from both countries.
3.2 Also just hours before the Cambodian submission at The Hague, conversations between Thai and Indonesian Foreign Ministers, and between Indonesian and Cambodian Foreign Ministers respectively, had yielded satisfactory progress in terms of diplomacy to ensure continued peace and stability in the area near the Temple of Phra Viharn, which is over 140 kilometres away from where the incidents in Surin Province took place.
3.3 Thai and Cambodian Foreign Ministers already spoke with each other and agreed to meet soonest to resolve outstanding issues to the bilateral relations. Thai and Cambodian Prime Ministers are also scheduled to attend the ASEAN Summit meeting in Jakarta in the next few days.
3.4 On 7-8 April 2011, the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission
(JBC), which is a joint mechanism established by the two countries to deal with land boundary matters, was convened in Bogor, Indonesia. The meeting discussed a range of issues, for example, preparations for production of orthophoto maps of the boundary between Thailand and Cambodia. Both sides agreed to meet again soon. The convening of the said meeting was a demonstration of willingness of Thailand and Cambodia to move this process forward, despite the fact that at that time Thailand had not yet completed its internal legal procedures for the Agreed Minutes of the previous three JBC meetings. Now that Thailand has completed its internal legal procedures on this matter, there is no reason why both countries cannot continue this bilateral process in good faith if there is a will to do so. It is important to recall that, during the Bogor meeting, the Cambodian side expressed its desire to see the completion of these internal legal procedures in Thailand as early as possible in order to proceed with relevant works of the JBC.
3.5 It is important to recall that the Seventh Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Relations between Cambodia and Thailand in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 3-4 February 2011, concluded with the following paragraph in its Record of Discussion:
“44. The Cambodian side expressed understanding of the internal process of consideration of the three Agreed Minutes of the Joint Commission on Land Boundary (JBC) of the Thai side and hoped for its earliest completion so that both sides can proceed expeditiously with all relevant works of the JBC, including, in priority, the survey and demarcation works in Sector 6, as well as the process of orthophoto maps, the fact finding mission and location of boundary pillars in the other remaining sectors.”
4. In light of the above facts, it is clear that Cambodia will stop at nothing to achieve its specific political expediencies even though it would mean creating a conflict, disregarding the bilateral commitments already made and bypassing the ongoing efforts by the ASEAN family just days ahead of the ASEAN Summit. It is therefore sad that many lives have been lost and livelihoods of peoples on both sides of the border have been adversely affected as a result of this calculated strategy by Cambodia.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th