Brunei Darussalam – Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow sat down with his Cambodian counterpart, Prak Sokhonn, on Monday, April 27th, during a major ASEAN-EU meeting in Brunei. The top item on the agenda was straightforward: Thailand is moving forward with the formal process to cancel a 25-year-old agreement known as MOU 44.
Minister Sihasak made it clear, however, that scrapping the deal does not mean Thailand is walking away from negotiations with Cambodia. The two countries will keep talking about their disputed sea border, he stressed.
For anyone who has never followed this story, here’s a plain-English breakdown of what MOU 44 actually is, why it matters, and what “revoking” it really means.
What is MOU 44, in simple terms?
Picture two neighbours arguing over a patch of backyard that both claim is theirs. In this case, the “backyard” is a large underwater area in the Gulf of Thailand, roughly 26,000 square kilometres (about the size of a small country). Both Thailand and Cambodia say the sea floor and the waters above it belong to them. Importantly, that patch is believed to sit on top of valuable natural gas and oil reserves.
Back in June 2001, the two governments signed a short, two-page document officially called the Memorandum of Understanding between the Royal Thai Government and the Royal Government of Cambodia regarding the Area of their Overlapping Maritime Claims to the Continental Shelf. Everyone just calls it MOU 44.
The deal was meant to be a temporary, practical truce while they worked out the permanent border line. Here’s what it actually said, in everyday language:
It drew a box on the map called the Overlapping Claims Area (OCA) and said, “For now, we both have claims here – we won’t fight over it while we talk.”
The two countries promised to negotiate two things together as a single “package”:
1. Where exactly the sea border should be drawn (the technical term is “maritime delimitation”), and
2. Whether they could share the oil and gas money by developing the area jointly.
Until they reached a final agreement on both, neither side was supposed to start drilling alone.
Think of it like two people agreeing to freeze a joint bank account and talk about how to split it fairly – but they never actually finished the conversation. In more than two decades, the joint committee set up by MOU 44 met only a handful of times. No border line was ever agreed, and no joint drilling ever started. Instead, the unresolved dispute kept popping up and creating mistrust between the two countries.
So what does “revoking” MOU 44 actually mean?
Revoking the MOU is like one neighbour saying: “This temporary truce isn’t working. I’m tearing up the paper we signed in 2001.”
Here’s what changes in plain terms:
The special “overlapping claims box” on the map disappears as a formal legal framework.
Thailand is no longer bound by the old “package deal” rule that tied border talks to oil-sharing talks.
Thailand wants to negotiate the sea border directly under modern international law (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS), which both countries have now signed.
Thailand can, if it chooses, start treating the area according to its own legal view of the border instead of the old shared-claims zone.
Importantly, revoking MOU 44 does NOT mean:
The sea border dispute suddenly disappears.
Thailand is refusing to talk to Cambodia anymore.
War or any kind of military action is on the table.
Foreign Minister Sihasak specifically told the Cambodian side that bilateral negotiations will continue. Thailand’s government has repeatedly said the goal is still a peaceful solution.
Why is Thailand doing this now?
Thai officials have explained that after 25 years of almost no progress, the old MOU had become a source of frustration rather than cooperation. They believe starting fresh under clearer international rules will be more productive. The decision was first approved by Thailand’s National Security Council earlier this month and is now moving through the formal diplomatic notification process.
The meeting in Brunei was the moment Thailand officially informed Cambodia that the revocation process is underway.
What happens next?
Both sides will keep talking – just without the 2001 MOU as the rulebook. The underlying dispute over who owns which slice of the Gulf of Thailand remains exactly where it was before. For ordinary people in both countries, daily life continues unchanged. Fishermen, shipping routes, and beach holidays are not affected. The only real change is that the old diplomatic “holding pattern” is being replaced by a new approach.
Thailand and Cambodia have had their ups and downs over the years, but both governments insist they want to solve this the neighbourly way – through talks, not confrontation. The revocation of MOU 44 is simply the end of one chapter in a very long story, not the end of the story itself.
Photos: Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow
For the original version of this article, please visit The Pattaya News.
