Cambodia’s compulsory conciliation with Thailand under UN sea law shows how international law can deliver peaceful outcomes before tensions boil over

The Global South cannot afford to let its maritime border disputes fester

Cambodia’s compulsory conciliation with Thailand under UN sea law shows how international law can deliver peaceful outcomes before tensions boil over

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Makane Moïse Mbengue is professor of international law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva and director of the Department of International Law and International Organisation.

Published: 5:30am, 11 Sep 2026

The ocean looks like peace from afar and truth up close, they say. But beneath the waves, the map of the world’s oceans is far less settled than it looks. Today, dozens of sea borders remain unresolved. Like so many conflicts, they owe their origins to complicated questions of where one country’s territory ends, and another’s begins.

Many involve overlapping claims to areas rich in resources; and a disproportionate number concern the waters of the Global South. Africa’s coastline is a stark example. The continent has the highest number of unsettled sea boundaries. These disputes are liabilities, and at the worst possible time.

The conflict in the Middle East has shaken energy markets around the world but nowhere has been more exposed than the Global South. This vulnerability is why governments in these regions can no longer afford to leave these borders unsettled. As future chokepoints preventing much-needed resource development, they also risk confrontation and create grey zones ripe for illegal fishing.

Global conflicts are not just disrupting energy markets, but the legal order that maritime security, and much else, depends on. The need for governments to engage with these disputes has rarely been more urgent, and there is no better time for the Global South to show how international law can and should provide solutions.

Lessons can be drawn from recent developments in the Gulf of Thailand. In May, Thailand withdrew from a 25-year-old memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to resolve their maritime boundary and peacefully develop undersea energy resources valued at over US$300 billion. Rather than escalate, Cambodia initiated compulsory conciliation proceedings under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Thailand accepted the offer in June, and a commission of international legal experts has now formed to hear the dispute and peacefully work towards a resolution. Cambodia, the smaller nation of the two and in open conflict with Thailand months ago, has secured a hearing on a dispute it could never have won by force.