Thai Cabinet agrees to revoke MoU on overlapping waters with Cambodia
Thai Cabinet yesterday approved the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to revoke a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on overlapping maritime boundaries signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2001.
The decision by the Thai Cabinet came after Cambodia had recently appointed Thailand’s fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser to Cambodian government.
Former premier Thaksin had jumped bail before the country’s Supreme Court Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on October 21 last year pronounced a two-year imprisonment against him for his involvement a land purchase by the then his wife Pojaman from the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF).
Yesterday, the Thai Cabinet agreed in principle to cancel the MoU on the ground that such agreement has not been any progress during the past eight years but the Cabinet resolution would need an approval from the Thai parliament before the determination of the MoU will become effective.
Dr Panithan Wattanayakorn, Thailand’s acting government spokesman, yesterday disclosed that the appointment of fugitive Thaksin as the economic adviser by Cambodia will directly impact negotiations between Thailand and Cambodia under the framework of the MOU, which had been signed during Thaksin government.
Dr Panithan said the Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the legal issues as the revocation of the MoU must be forwarded to Parliament for its consideration in accordance with Article 190 of the country’s Constitution.
The Cabinet, he said, had discussed the action with several concerned agencies, such as the country’s Council of State, the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) and the ministry’s Department of Treaty and Legal Affairs before making such decision.
The revocation of the MoU will however not affect any other relationship between the two countries, he said.
Yesterday, French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that Thaksin via a private airplane arrived in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, on first assignment as an economic adviser to the Cambodian government.
Thailand has prepared to submit a letter seeking the extradition of Thaksin to Cambodian government yesterday even though Cambodia’s prime minister Hun Sen had earlier announced his stance that he would not extradite Thaksin, claiming that Thaksin’s jail term was from a political case.
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