KhhmerTimes-June 16, 2025
Cambodia has strongly rejected a unilateral map drawn by Thailand and used as a reference in border negotiations, citing it as a primary source of prolonged and ongoing border disputes between the two nations. The firm stance was outlined in a press statement from Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Border Affairs, following the 6th Meeting of the Cambodia-Thailand Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) on Land Demarcation in Phnom Penh. The Cambodian delegation was led by Lam Chea, Minister in charge of the State Secretariat of Border Affairs and Chair of Cambodia’s JBC, while the Thai side was headed by Prasas Prasasvinitchai, Border Advisor to Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chair to the JBC. According to the statement, Minister Chea reiterated that, apart from the four disputed areas currently under legal consideration at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Cambodia remains committed to cooperating with Thailand to advance land surveying, demarcation, and boundary marker placement through the JBC mechanism. He also reaffirmed the Cambodian government’s policy of peace and its desire to establish a peaceful, friendly, and cooperative border with Thailand, based on legal principles and mutually agreed-upon maps. These include the 1:200,000-scale maps referenced in the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and derived from the spirit of the 1904 and 1907 Franco-Siamese Treaties, which both parties agreed to use for demarcation work. In this context, Cambodia categorically rejected the unilateral map drawn by Thailand, asserting that its use has been the root cause of past, current, and potential future border disputes, according to the Cambodian side. Read more at:
