(Phnom Penh): Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn reaffirmed Cambodia’s position that its national border cannot be changed or determined by force or through fait accompli.

Speaking at the general discussion of the second Inter-Parliamentary Speakers’ Conference (ISC-2) on Friday morning (Aug. 28), Minister Sokhonn said, “It is vital to underscore that Cambodia and Thailand have a recognised international boundary, clearly delimited more than a century ago in maps produced at a scale of 1:200,000 by the Commission of Delimitation of Boundaries between Indochina and Siam, pursuant to the 1904 Convention and the 1907 Treaty between France and Siam.”

He said the treaties and maps were relied upon by the International Court of Justice in its judgment in 1962 and again in 2013 in the case of the Preah Vihear Temple.

“The way forward must therefore remain firmly grounded in these legal instruments and in the mechanism agreed between the two countries,” Prak Sokhonn said.

“Cambodia's position in this regard is clear and principled. The national border cannot be changed or determined by force or through fait accompli. Cambodia does not and will never agree to that.”

He also stressed that Cambodia’s land and maritime boundaries are separate matters governed by different legal frameworks.

“There is therefore no legal or practical justification for using one to halt the progress of the other,” he said, adding that both should proceed without delay through their respective agreed legal framework and mechanism and in accordance with international law.
=FRESH NEWS