The Prime Minister speaks out firmly: Cambodia claims the UN is pressing Thailand to use MOU 2000 to negotiate the border — he stresses clearly that Thailand has its own principles and its own position, and no one can compel it. He passes the task of issuing a rebuttal to UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews — who implicated Thailand over the border migrant issue — to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak.
At 09:50 on 3 August, at the Ministry of Interior, Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul gave an interview regarding the end-of-mission statement by Mr. Tom Andrews, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, which contained references to Thailand in the context of the situation of Thais in Cambodia. He said that today, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow would make a statement on this matter, noting that Mr. Tom Andrews had made his statement without yet having heard information from the Thai side. Thailand does not accept that opinion, and he asked the public to wait for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make a clearer statement.
When asked about the case of Cambodia pushing to have the Memorandum of Understanding on the Survey and Demarcation of Land Boundary between Thailand and Cambodia 2000 (MOU 2000), along with the 1:200,000 scale map, used as reference documents for discussing the border issue through the United Nations (UN) platform in order to negotiate with Thailand, the Prime Minister asked in return: What does "negotiate" mean? Do we have no bargaining position whatsoever? We have our own clear position on what must be done first. As long as the matter of maritime treaties is governed by the rules of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) — which is also a UN instrument — and even that contains the concept of mandatory provisions and various components, no one can compel Thailand. Therefore, our condition is: do not use the word "compel" with us.
When asked again whether our map remains unchanged, the Prime Minister said: We already have our own principles — we have been negotiating all along based on those principles. The land boundary negotiations under MOU 2000 can proceed, but when we said we were withdrawing from negotiations on MOU 44, they said that was not allowed — that the mandatory mechanism must be used. That makes negotiations impossible. This is something they need to go away and reconsider — if they want to come and negotiate with Thailand, they need to consider what terms they will come on. No one can compel us. They can go and lodge a complaint with whoever they like. Thailand is confident. We do not need to go and explain ourselves to anyone.
