Phnom Penh: Samdech Techo Hun Sen, Acting Head of State of Cambodia, said that he was very satisfied with the article by an expert in ASEAN affairs and the study of the Thai-Cambodian border dispute, who analyzed that Thailand controls the UNCLOS game and is an imaginary society that does not read books.
Samdech Techo’s remarks came after Professor Akaraphong Khamkhun, an expert in ASEAN affairs and the study of the Thai-Cambodian border dispute, published an article titled “Analysis of the Proposal: Thailand Controls the UNCLOS Game.” In his analysis, the professor frankly stated that Thai society is a society that lives in imagination and does not read books.
Regarding this article, Samdech Techo said on the morning of June 8, 2026 that he was interested in this article. Samdech Techo also said that he did not have any additional comments on Professor Akaraphong Khamkhun’s article, leaving both people to consider what the professor wrote. Samdech Techo shared this article with an unofficial translation to provide more information to the Cambodian and Thai people.
The full text of the article by a Thai political scientist analyzes the case in which Cambodia sent a letter to the Thai side and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to initiate a forced conciliation process in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS. In this, two legal experts were appointed as representatives and the Thai side was given three weeks to propose two representatives to select a chairman to fulfill the conciliation role. Professor Akaraphong Khamkhun, an expert on ASEAN affairs and the study of the Thai-Cambodian border dispute, made a straightforward analysis that Thai society is a society that lives in fantasy and does not read books.
Cambodia follows what is stated in international law, but Thailand is a society that does not even understand basic knowledge about the law of the sea.
Then they complain that Cambodia is playing the game faster, making Thailand unprepared. The unpreparedness is because there is no mind to adhere to principles, and in the case of Thailand-Cambodia, we always solve problems at the wrong point. The problem is happening on the land border, but instead we announce the cancellation of the water border agreement. What does that mean? It means that we do not understand international political standards at all.
We are a society that thinks alone because we think that Cambodia will follow us, based on the pride that it is a bigger country, has more negotiating power, and wants to do whatever it wants, which I think is a lesson that Thai society must learn. Many people say that we are not playing Cambodia’s game yet? It is not that we are not playing the game yet, but we ourselves are not aware of what we are doing?
The land border issue that occurred in May 2025 was only a problem that occurred in the Chong Bok area, but Thai society keeps talking about it far and wide without focusing on specific points. Let me say this once and for all: those who shout patriotism but have no brains are the ones who are truly destroying the nation.
You have taken personal bias and hatred as the basis, and when you can’t do anything, you resort to using the same game to destroy Thais, using hatred between countries as a tool. I think this is something that Thai society needs to reexamine itself, especially regarding the law, which we have not respected at all.
This situation shows that Thai society is a society that lacks understanding, not even severing the 1995 cooperation with the Memorandum of Understanding between the Royal Government of Thailand and the Royal Government of Cambodia on the Survey and Demarcation of the Land Boundary in 2000 (MOU 43), as well as the two other important bilateral mechanisms of the military parties, including: the General Border Committee and the Regional Border Committee.
Therefore, for this situation, let us not panic. Thailand announced the cancellation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia on the Area of Overlapping Claims on the Seabed of 2001 (MOU 44) on May 5, indicating that the Cambodian side had prepared in advance and implemented the law correctly.
