By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE THAI-CAMBODIAN Memorandum of Understanding made in 2001 in regard to a joint undersea natural resources development scheme may be deemed “unconstitutional” and finally declared null and void by Thailand, said Palang Pracharath Secretary-General Paiboon Nititawan today (Nov. 7).
Given a sustained controversy over the legitimacy of the MoU undersigned in the times of former Thai prime minister/now de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra and his former Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen, such an international agreement between Bangkok and Phnom Penh could be finally deemed “unconstitutional” because it had not been approved by Thailand’s legislative branch, Paiboon said.
An international agreement which the executive branch may have reached with another country needed a formal approval from the legislative branch under the Thai constitution, he pointed out.
For that reason, he said, the questionable MoU between Thaksin’s and Hun Sen’s governments could probably be declared null and void by the Thai side despite the current Pheu Thai-led government’s efforts to put it to work.
According to the Palang Pracharath secretary-general, the contentious 2001 MoU had been made without respect to the Vienna Convention of 1969 pertaining to the maritime boundaries of countries in the Gulf of Thailand whilst making overlapping claims over Thai territorial waters around Koh Kood island off Trat.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the de facto Pheu Thai boss, has recently said the Thai-Cambodian profit-sharing scheme which calls for exploration and production of undersea oil, natural gas and other natural resources will be implemented as earlier planned between the two neighbouring countries and a technical committee on the Thai side will be newly set up in foreseeable future.
Thaksin and Hun Sen have been invariably viewed as closed friends with the former Thai prime minister/now de facto Pheu Thai boss receiving the former Cambodian prime minister as the first guest at his house on the Thonburi side of the Thai capital a few days after the former had been released on parole from Police Hospital where he had been contentiously granted the privilege of staying for a six-month period in lieu of a prison to otherwise serve his curtailed, one-year jail term for power abuse charges.
CAPTION:
Former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen visiting de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra at his residence soon after he was released on parole from Police Hospital earlier this year. Thaksin’s daughter/Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is at the left in Front Page photo. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: Phnom Penh
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