LAW OF THE SEA: CAMBODIA DELIMITS HER CONTINENTAL SHELF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP08C01297R000100230005-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 14, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: August 2, 1972
• Content Type: CABLE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/14: CIA. RDP08CO1297R000100230005-3 j A
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UNCLASSIFIED
Department of State
INFO : Bangkok, Saigon, Vientiane,
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SUBJECT : Law of the Sea: Cambodia Delimits Her
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Amembassy Phnom Penh
Continental Shelf
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ANI,L.YSIS BRANCH
DATE: August 2, 1972
,Yle 16-4
FILE DESIGNATION
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This airgram gives the Embassy translation of an
interview with Minister of Industry, Mineral Resources
and Ocean Fishing, CHHANN SOKHUM. The Minister spoke
about the basis for determining the borders of
Cambodia's continental shelf.
Attached as an enclosure is the French text of the
Khmer decree delimiting the continental shelf.
Saigon will note that Koh Tral (Phu Quoc Island) is
included in Cambodia's frontier.
The Delimitation of Cambodia's Continental Shelf -
Realites Ca.mbodgiennes, June 24, 1972
In its last meeting, the Council of Ministers adopted
a decree delimiting Cambodia's continental shelf.
The Minister of Industry, Mineral Resources and Ocean
Fishing, Mr. Chhann Sokhum, sponsored the decree. In
an interview with us at the beginning of the week, he
explained that a continental shelf is the underwater
extension of theconwirrent-o the point where the
ocean becomes 200 meters deep. The Geneva Convention
of April 29, 1958,fixed the details of determining
the borders of the continental shelf of those
countries with a coastline. This convention was
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/14: CIA-RDP08CO1297R000100230005-3
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 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/14: CIA-RDP08CO1297R000100230005-3
Phnom Penh A _113
Page 2
ratified by Cambodia, and the Cambodian government, in drawing-
up the new decree, used the principles contained in the Geneva
Convention. It should be noted that the Gulf of Siam is at
no point deeper than 50 meters. Therefore, it was necessary
to use a clause of the convention specifying that the borders
of the continental shelf are determined by a line based on
the coast, extrapolated from the terrestial borders.
Mr. Chhann Sokhum also said that the decree is necessary
because there have hitherto been no documents establishing
the borders of Cambodia's continental shelf. There are treaties
and protocols to the treaties concluded between France and
Thailand, especially the Franco-Thai Treaty of March 23,1907,
and the subsequent proces-verbal on the delimitation of the
frontier dated February 18, 1908. The new decree refers to
this treaty and proces-verbal and is also based on French
m al map number 1972, drawn-up in 1949 on a scale of 1/1,096,
000.
The new decree not only permits us to legalize all extant
documents, but should also facilitate the work of Cambodian
negotiators already in contact with the Thai and South
Vietnamese governments. Together they will delimit precisely
the borders of the continental shelf in such a fashion as
to forestall possible differences, especially when explorations
for petroleum are undertaken throughout the Gulf of Siam.
SWANK
/~7Enclosure: Kret No. 439, 721 PRK
of July 1, 1972
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/14: CIA-RDP08CO1297R000100230005-3
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/14: CIA-RDP08CO1297R000100230005-3
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/14: CIA-RDP08CO1297R000100230005-3
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