Managing Overlapped Sea Territories between Thailand and Malaysia

Abstract

This article presents the implementation between Thailand and Malaysia in administering the joint development area. It begins with reviewing the development of the cooperation to which the joint development area is created between Thailand and Malaysia and then presenting the state of the art of the development of the cooperation for the resolutions regarding the problem of the overlapping territorial claims between Thailand and Malaysia. To further develop the cooperation between Thailand and its neighboring countries over the sea territorial disputes, the research suggests as follows:- 1) officials, both in the position of policy and execution levels, must be increasingly develop their knowledge and understanding of the disputing territories, not only in terms of the general aspects but as well the specific aspects; 2) the relations between Thailand and the conflicting countries should be promoted to become more and more friendly both in terms of bilateral and multilateral, including in international organizations related. Moreover, the relations between the people of Thailand and the conflicting countries must be encouraged as it is a fertile ground leading to common understanding and interest equally shared; and 3) a cooperation framework must be highly integrated so as to be able to function properly and systematically particularly in parts of authority, information and staff. This will be useful in developing common understanding and information exchange as well.