Thailand and Cambodia’s overlapping maritime claims are governed, at least procedurally, by a 2001 memorandum that explicitly links two tracks: joint development of hydrocarbon resources in a defined area, and maritime delimitation (territorial sea, continental shelf and exclusive economic zone) in an area “to be delimited”. Crucially, the document states that these tracks were intended to be treated as “an indivisible package. This structure created an inherent political trap: joint development could be framed as pragmatism, while delimitation touched sovereignty, making movement on either track vulnerable to nationalist backlash. Recent debates in Thailand have shown how readily the Gulf issue could be pulled into nationalist contestation, including critiques centred on suspicions of unfair negotiations and fears of territorial compromise. More recently, the Thai senate has indicated its support for repealing the 2001 memorandum. In this context, the land conflict has begun to change the atmosphere in which the maritime dispute must eventually be addressed.

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