Cambodia Has Another Maritime Border Problem - With Vietnam

 

Cambodia has another maritime border issue.

Tensions are rising between Thailand and Cambodia, the inheritance of a poorly drawn map dating back to French colonial times. This issue affects Cambodia in the Khong Yai area, where a coastal strip of Thai territory approximately 30 miles long, but in many places less than a mile in width, prevents Cambodia access to the sea. In the border war this summer, Thai marines, with naval gunfire support, repelled an attempt by Cambodia to seize access to the sea across this narrow strip of land.

But further to the South and on her border with Vietnam, Cambodia faces a far more serious problem.

Cambodia, with Chinese finance supposedly restricted to 49%, is building the Funan Techno Canal, to link the Mekong River through Cambodia territory directly to the Gulf of Thailand near Port Sihanouk. This route for sea-going ships will mean that vessels will no longer need to pass through the mouth of the Mekong in Vietnamese territory before gaining access to the open seas. Vietnam benefits commercially from the current political geography, as Cambodia has to ship through Vietnamese territory and Ho Chi Minh City is effectively the entry port for Mekong river traffic into Cambodia. This business would fall away when the Funan Techno Canal opens.

The Vietnamese are also worried that water diverted from the Mekong into the Funan Techno Canal will lower water levels in the Mekong Delta, and hazard shipping channels.

In response, and after failed attempts to engage in negotiations, the Vietnamese are now planning to build a road causeway across what would have been the main sea route to the entrance of the new canal, linking their port city of Hà Tiên with the Vietnamese islands of H?i T?c and Phú Qu?c.

The Vietnamese claim the project is proceeding at pace, and is due for completion in 2027. But while the intent may be there, and is being talked up on Vietnamese social media, satellite imagery shows only a limited length of the causeway has been built so far. The Vietnamese may be waiting to speed up construction until the Cambodian canal has progressed further.

By closing this sea approach to the mouth of the canal, the Vietnamese would not be restricting access completely. There is to be a bridge for fishing boats in the causeway, and access to the canal entrance will remain, but solely through Cambodian territorial waters to the north of Phú Qu?c Island. This approach is only 0.8 miles wide at its narrowest, and the maritime border may not allow Cambodia access to the deepwater channel which ocean-going ships will need.

The Vietnamese are not in the mood for compromise or for making life easy for Cambodia. Under the umbrella of the ASEAN organization, the navies of the two countries keep up a pretense of enjoying good neighborly relations. The Vietnamese TP-01 Class patrol boat P251 conducted joint maneuvers with the Koh Svay Class patrol craft Koh Kras (P1142) of the Royal Cambodian Navy in March this year, but the same Vietnamese patrol boat was seen in a show of force with four other Brigade 127 patrol boats in the same area last month.