Thailand and Cambodia begin UN conciliation process over disputed maritime claims

BANGKOK -- BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand and Cambodia ’s foreign ministers exchanged opening statements in Singapore on Tuesday at the first meeting to settle a sea border dispute under a U.N. agreement on maritime law for compulsory conciliation.At issue is territory claimed by both that is believed to contain large, exploitable amounts of natural gas and other hydrocarbons.The decision to take the matter to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, was triggered by Cambodia in June after Thailand terminated a 25-year-old memorandum of understanding meant to resolve overlapping maritime claims.Thailand’s decision to revoke the agreement came unilaterally after a sharp deterioration in relations and armed combat with Cambodia last year. The Southeast Asian neighbors fought over competing claims to territory along the land border in July and December. Several dozen civilians and soldiers on both sides were killed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow and his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhonn led their delegations in the first conciliation meeting with the five-member UNCLOS commission, held in Singapore from Monday to Wednes...