Thailand border threat pushes Cambodia to ratify UN sea treaty after over 40 years

A “threat assessment” of Thailand amid deadly land border clashes has finally convinced Cambodia to ratify a major UN maritime treaty, according to analysts. Speculation that the Thai navy might close off supply lanes in the Gulf of Thailand also weighed heavily in Phnom Penh’s decision, they said. Phnom Penh ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) on January 16, more than four decades after signing the treaty. It is the last Asean member to do so. Passed during the fifth session of the National Assembly, the approval will be forwarded to the Senate for final sign-off. Cambodia signed Unclos in 1983, one year after the convention was adopted in Jamaica. However, the treaty entered into force only in 1994, primarily due to resistance from industrialised nations over deep seabed mining rules. The convention is a multilateral treaty concluded under the UN and a result of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, held between 1973 and 1982. Unclos would give Cambodia a comprehensive framework for maritime governance and protection under national maritime law, according to local media. It also strengthens Phnom Penh’s role in international forums and resolving maritime issues with other countries. The ratification took into account Cambodia’s “threat assessment” against Thailand, said Abdul Rahman Yaacob, non-resident senior fellow at independent think tank Verve Research. Several deadly skirmishes erupted between the two Southeast Asian neighbours last year primarily due to a century-old, unresolved border dispute, exacerbated by rising nationalist sentiment and security concerns. Following the clashes, there were talks that the Thai navy would close the Gulf of Thailand, cutting Cambodia’s sea lines of communication – something Bangkok has denied. “Cambodia could attempt to use Unclos as a reference point while negotiating with Thailand,” Rahman said. Given the kingdom’s smaller and weaker navy, a legal framework would give it another option in protecting its maritime interests. Cambodia’s interests in the Gulf of Thailand centre on securing energy resources, ensuring access to shipping routes and protecting fisheries. These often intertwine with long-standing boundary disputes with Thailand and Vietnam, particularly an unresolved overlapping maritime claim in the Gulf of Thailand with Bangkok. Not a priority Since Cambodia signed the treaty in 1983, it has chosen to focus more on internal security and cohesion, according to Rahman. During this time, the country transitioned from a war-torn nation under Vietnamese occupation to a fragile constitutional monarchy, marked by UN-backed elections in 1993. It then transitioned to a one-man rule under Hun Sen, who put in place economic recovery and growth. “The ratification of Unclos has not been the Cambodian government’s priority,” Rahman said. Chong De Xian, associate research fellow in the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies’ Maritime Security Programme, said Cambodia was presenting the ratification as both “a governance upgrade and a positioning move”. Not only does it offer a comprehensive framework for maritime law and administration, it also provides a clearer basis for engaging in sea disputes in a more “rules-based” manner, according to Chong. Last year’s deterioration of ties with Thailand amid the worst fighting in years had “sharpened Cambodia’s appetite to harden its positions through internationally recognised rules and to reduce exposure to bilateral volatility”, Chong said. However, ratification could still complicate political dynamics, Chong said, if it looked like Cambodia was trying to consolidate its position in the gulf before delimitation was agreed. For example, issuing or revising baselines, publishing official charts, maps and coordinates for maritime zones, tightening enforcement or granting fishing or mining licences in contested waters could be read by neighbours as an attempt to “lock in” entitlements and “create facts” on the ground. “That can trigger pushback and make negotiations more politically difficult,” Chong said. Ratifying the treaty would also make it “politically harder” for Phnom Penh to openly dismiss Unclos-based legal arguments – especially when members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations use the convention’s legal vocabulary “to push back against claims inconsistent with Unclos”, Chong added. The Philippines and Vietnam, in particular, have long maintained that Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea are inconsistent with Unclos. In 2016, Cambodia, a close ally of Beijing, blocked Asean from issuing a joint statement referencing the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling that invalidated China’s “nine-dash line” claims in the South China Sea. Pou Sothirak, senior adviser to the Cambodian Centre for Regional Studies, said the long delay towards ratification was due to “the lack of full understanding” in the “significant usefulness of Unclos”. Cambodia saw the convention as lacking “sufficient strength” in environmental protection, climate change adaptation, marine biodiversity conservation and regulation of deep seabed mining, he said. It was also seen as “relatively weak in addressing maritime security threats, resolving territorial disputes, and regulating emerging technologies”. This view was compounded by the complex legal implications of Unclos’ call to resolve contentious overlapping maritime claims, given that such disputes with Thailand might become “eminent in the foreseeable future”, he added. By ratifying Unclos, Cambodia had stated more clearly its adherence to the rule-based order and international law, Sothirak said, breaking the “dilemma” on whether to support Asean on Unclos or remain neutral. “As a small state, Cambodia is vulnerable to external pressures from bigger and stronger neighbours,” he said. “[It] can now rely on [Unclos] to protect its maritime sovereignty and interests against illegal intrusions by neighbouring states with shared maritime boundaries.”

Thailand border threat pushes Cambodia to ratify UN sea treaty after over 40 years

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Cambodia’s smaller and weaker navy will find safety in numbers and rule of law now that it has ratified Unclos, according to analysts

Cambodia’s smaller and weaker navy will find safety in numbers and rule of law now that it has ratified Unclos, according to analysts