Cambodia, Thailand agree to resume OCA talks

• 12 September 2019
• Local News
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After nearly two decades of hiatus, Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to resume talks on development of their overlapping claims area (OCA) on offshore oil fields, on the principle that it should be developed based on mutual interests.

The agreement to resume talks was made in a meeting between the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Thai Energy Ministry held in Bangkok, last week.

Cheap Sour, director-general of the ministry’s general department of petroleum, said the two-sided agreed to resume discussions on the development of the OCA as quickly as is feasible for sharing mutual benefit to both countries.

“In the meeting, we boosted the talks and discussions should be made as quick as possible based on the mutual benefit,” Mr Cheap Sour said.

Cambodia and Thailand have claimed sovereignty of the OCA, a 27,000-square-kilometre area in the Gulf of Thailand that is believed to be rich in oil and gas.

Cambodia and Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in 2001 to set a joint-development regime over certain areas of the OCA and attempt to demarcate a maritime border between others. Thailand, however, suspended the agreement in 2009.

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