Thai gov't can revoke maritime agreement with Cambodia
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Thailand's House Speaker Chai Chidchob said Monday the Thai government can revoke a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on overlapping maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Thailand signed with Cambodia in 2001.
Any bilateral agreement with a foreign country can be endorsed or revoked by a government, the House Speaker said, Thai News Agency reported.
However, the government has to report such the endorsement or cancellation on any bilateral agreement to the parliament, Chai said.
The Thai Foreign Ministry announced Friday it will propose the cabinet meeting on Tuesday to cancel the MOU on overlapping maritime boundaries.
The MOU was signed by then-Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on June 14, 2001, under the Thaksin Shinawatra-led Administration.
This joint agreement enables Thailand and Cambodia, which share 26,000 square kilometers of the overlapping maritime area, to jointly develop oil and gas.
The planned MOU revocation by the Thai government ocurred after the Cambodian government on Nov. 5 announced recall of its ambassador to Thailand in a move to respond to the Thai government ' s recall of its ambassador Mr. Prasas Prasavinitchai to Cambodia.
The diplomatic retaliation between the two countries occurred after Thaksin was officially appointed as adviser of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Royal Government of Cambodia King Norodom Sihamoni. Enditem
Thaksin was ousted by the military coup in September 2006, in accusation of corruption, and has been kept in exile since then.
He returned to Thailand in February 2008 to face corruption charges, but he later fled into exile again and was convicted in absentia.
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