Picture courtesy of Amarin.

 

Two Thai military officers, both graduates of the prestigious Saint-Cyr Military Academy in France, have concluded a major research project confirming, with what they term “1,000% certainty”, that the island of Koh Kood in Trat Province is unequivocally Thai territory.

 

Lieutenant General Dr Peerapol Songnui, a historian and Colonel Pracha Smithsombun, Thailand’s Army Attaché in Paris, collaborated to gather documentary evidence from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and the Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

Their research focused on a collection of colonial-era maps and records, particularly from the Nouvelle Série of French diplomatic archives, volumes 76 to 79, which document boundary demarcation efforts between Siam and French Indochina during the early 20th century. These records included material from the Franco-Siamese Border Commission, established to resolve border disputes between Siam and French colonies in the region.

 

One of the key findings cited by the officers was a provision from the 1907 Franco-Siamese Treaty, which stated that natural features should be used as boundary markers and that Siam was not to lose territory unfairly in such agreements. According to this principle, and a subsequent meeting of the Border Commission in Pailin on 8 February 1908, the coastal boundary was agreed to begin north of Cape O’Piam, extending towards inland mountain ridges, with Koh Kood clearly falling within Siamese waters.

 

The officers also referenced several French-produced maps from the colonial era, including:

 

• A 1920 Cambodian map, which did not include any maritime boundaries around Koh Kood.

 

• A 1927 map by Governor Baudoin of French-protected Cambodia, which clearly placed Koh Kood within Siamese territory.

 

• A 1933 map of French Indochina, showing the maritime boundary between Koh Kong (Cambodia) and Koh Kood, but not crossing the island, again placing it within Siam.

 

• A 1939 forest coverage map, which used colour coding to distinguish jurisdictions: Koh Kood, shown in white, lay in Siam, while Koh Kong, in green, was under French Cambodian control.

 

Dr Peerapol and Colonel Pracha emphasised that these multiple lines of evidence, treaty texts, minutes of boundary commission meetings and numerous maps, unequivocally support the Thai claim to Koh Kood. They stressed that their work reinforces the historical and legal basis for Thailand’s sovereignty over the island, particularly in light of recent sensitivities over maritime boundaries near Cambodian waters.

 

 

  Adapted by Asean Now from Amarin 2025-08-03

 

 

 

Maybe an independent analysis of the documents would result in a different conclusion.

 

As has been reported previously, others (of neither Cambodian nor Thai origin) who have examined the documents have noted a certain degree of ambiguity in the noted documents.

They would say that, wouldn't they  🤣