LAND BOUNDARIES OF Cambodia-Vietnam [Introduction]

by Ronald Bruce St John

From the article "The Six Wooden Poles and the Khmer Buffaloes" published by KI Media. Photo courtesy of wizkid artist at KI Media! 

“Visalo pressed for adoption of the 1:50,000-scale map on the grounds it was more detailed and currently in use for most border negotiations outside Southeast Asia. He added that a map of this scale had been drafted between 1904 and 1907 for the border with Thailand. Visalo also indicated that the 1:100,000-scale map was inaccurate in that it contained at least seven major errors on the Cambodian border with Vietnam alone.”

French colonial rule in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, as noted in an earlier study of the land boundaries of Indochina, “sparked a heady vintage of Asian nationalism, but the new wine was then poured into old wineskins in the form of colonial boundaries.” In consequence, the modern boundaries of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam generally reflect only minor deviations from pre-independence boundaries albeit with the significant distinction that they were negotiated by equal and independent states. Bilateral borderline negotiations have continued over the last few years in an ongoing effort to delimit and demarcate isolated sections of those boundaries, with substantial progress made in selected areas.

In the course of the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, representatives of the two states in 1983 negotiated an agreement in which they recognised as their border the present line between Cambodia and Vietnam as defined in a 1:100,000-scale map published by the geographic service of Indochina and in use before 1954. Some two years later, Cambodia and Vietnam concluded a new treaty in which the signatories agreed to respect the present delimitation line defined as the line in existence at the time of independence. The 1985 agreement reiterated the decision taken in 1983 that the common border would be based on the borderline drawn on the 1:100,000-scale map in use before 1954.

Opposition politicians in Cambodia later criticised the 1983 and 1985 Cambodia-Vietnam border pacts; however, the agreements were tacitly recognised by the Royal Government of Cambodia installed in mid-1993. A few months later, a high-level Cambodian delegation journeyed to Hanoi where both sides agreed to focus new talks on the related issues of border problems and the status of ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. As border tensions continued, the prime ministers of Cambodia and Vietnam met in early 1996 and agreed to convene a border expert working group to determine the 1995 status quo as a first step in returning the border to its original position. The Cambodia-Vietnam working group met after May 1996 in what were invariably described as “frank and friendly talks” but found it difficult to overcome the mistrust and controversy which had long characterised the Cambodia-Vietnam borderlands. A senior official in the Cambodian government commented in September 1998 that border negotiations continued but cautioned it could take up to five years to resolve them completely.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in the course of a subsequent visit to Vietnam, later agreed with his Vietnamese hosts to resolve all outstanding border issues between Cambodia and Vietnam based on the agreements concluded in 1983 and 1985. Shortly thereafter, an inter-governmental committee specialising in border issues was formed and began meeting in March 1999. Two months later, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Prince Norodom Ranaridd, President of the Cambodian National Assembly, agreed that Cambodia and Vietnam should work together to resolve all border problems before the outset of the 21st century.

About the same time, the General Secretary of the Vietnamese communist party visited Phnom Penh in the first official visit of a Vietnamese official to Cambodia in well over a decade. In the course of his visit, Cambodia and Vietnam agreed in June 1999 to respect their mutual independence and sovereignty and reiterated their resolve to conclude all outstanding border issues before 2001.4

Indications that the public target for a resolution of all land boundary disputes was in jeopardy soon surfaced. In January 2000, Cambodian students meeting at the Social Study Institute in Phnom Penh rejected all border solutions based on treaties concluded in the 1980s on the grounds that their terms were beneficial to Vietnam and detrimental to Cambodia. The students also demanded that all final border settlements be based on a 1:50,000 map at the United Nations as opposed to the 1:100,000-scale map published by the geographic service of Indochina. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior, noted in August 2000 that there had been 72 land border disputes, mostly with Vietnam, reported in the first quarter of the year alone. A representative of the ministry added that it intended to reinforce its task force to defend Cambodian sovereignty and territorial integrity and to establish order along the border.

Two Cambodian National Assembly members, together with representatives of the Khmer Borders Protection Organisation (KBPO), later claimed that Vietnamese villagers continued to encroach on Cambodian territory. Despite an earlier pledge by both the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments not to move into any new territory while negotiations were in progress, the lawmakers indicated that as recently as July 2000 Vietnamese farmers had encroached on Khmer land in the Trapang Rusei area in Roong commune, Memuth district. Renewed allegations of border creep prompted the KBPO to call on members of both the Cambodian National Assembly and the Senate to reject the four treaties related to border issues currently in force between Cambodia and Vietnam. In addition to the 1983 and 1985 treaties already discussed, the four pacts included a treaty of peace, friendship and cooperation concluded in 1979 and a treaty on the maritime border signed in 1982.

All four agreements were negotiated when Cambodia was under Vietnamese control, and according to a KBPO spokesperson, were thus in conflict with the Cambodian constitution and contrary to international law.

In turn, Cambodian Under-Secretary of State Long Visalo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation official in charge of border issues, maintained that all pending issues could be resolved in short order. At the same time, he admitted that a major question yet to be answered was the scale of the map on which the Cambodia-Vietnam border would be drawn. While the 1993 Cambodian constitution referred to the 1:100,000-scale map published by the geographic service of Indochina, Visalo pressed for adoption of the 1:50,000-scale map on the grounds it was more detailed and currently in use for most border negotiations outside Southeast Asia. He added that a map of this scale had been drafted between 1904 and 1907 for the border with Thailand. Visalo also indicated that the 1:100,000-scale map was inaccurate in that it contained at least seven major errors on the Cambodian border with Vietnam alone. Inconclusive talks between representatives of Cambodia and Vietnam continued with the Third Meeting of the Cambodia-Vietnam Boundary Committee ending a session in Hanoi in early November 2000 with a statement recognising their mutual efforts to delimit the Cambodia-Vietnam boundary.

-Dr Ronald Bruce St John is an independent scholar specialising in the political economy and foreign policy of developing states. He has worked as an advisor and researcher in Southeast Asia for over 30 years and remains a regular visitor to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.