Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow says that the door for Thailand-Cambodia land border talks has closed after Cambodia brought the maritime dispute to UNCLOS. Meanwhile, Cambodia argues that engaging the UNCLOS process should not be treated as grounds for suspending negotiations on the land border. 

According to the Thai Foreign Minister, Thai and Cambodian leaders met and discussed the issue during the 7-9 May ASEAN Summit. At the time, he said the Thai side proposed that both countries should prioritise bilateral talks for all issues in order to build trust. 

Instead, Cambodia decided to bring the maritime dispute to compulsory conciliation under UNCLOS. Thailand maintained that the issue should first be addressed through bilateral negotiations, with other dispute resolution mechanisms to be pursued only if bilateral talks fail to reach an agreement. 

Sihasak noted that this showed that Cambodia was not ready for bilateral talks as discussed during the ASEAN Summit, and that it would also make talks regarding the land boundary more difficult. “At this point, the door has closed on opportunities to talk to each other on the land border,” said Sihasak. 

The Thai Foreign Minister also gave an interview with the Thai news outlet The Standard earlier this month, asserting that the next Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) meeting on the land boundary will depend on progress in negotiations over the maritime border.

The JBC was established under the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding, an agreement on the land boundary between Thailand and Cambodia. The Commission serves as the official bilateral mechanism for land boundary demarcation and technical surveys. 

The last JBC meeting was held in October 2025. Since then, no further meeting has been convened despite repeated calls from Cambodia. Earlier this year, Thailand postponed a meeting due to the general election, citing that the new government would first need to be formed before JBC meetings could resume. 

In response to the Thai Foreign Minister’s recent remarks, Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation argued that Cambodia’s decision to enter UNCLOS concerns the maritime border alone, and it cannot be treated as grounds for suspending negotiations on the land border. 

“It is worth recalling that it has been Thailand that has unilaterally withdrawn from this agreed framework for bilateral negotiations on maritime issue [sic],” said the statement.

Cambodia called on Thailand to stop creating a pretext for its deliberate delays and return in good faith to the demarcation process that both countries have already agreed under the terms of the 2000 MoU.

Sihasak’s remark also drew criticism from Thai academics. Surachart Bamrungsuk, a security expert and lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science, raised concerns that it could backfire on Thailand since negotiations under UNCLOS typically take much longer than expected. He also argued that linking the maritime dispute to the land boundary would further complicate efforts to complete the land boundary demarcation work.