"Teng Natthapong" presents three agendas advising the Prime Minister to use the ASEAN forum to resolve the overlapping territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia. Thailand must control the bilateral negotiation process to safeguard national interests rather than proposing the dispute be handled under the UNCLOS framework, fearing interference by a third party.
On 7 May 2026, Mr. Natthapong Ruangpanyawut, leader of the Prachachon Party, posted on Facebook three key agendas that Prime Minister Anutin must boldly lead Thailand on the ASEAN Summit stage. Ahead of the 48th ASEAN Summit in the Philippines from 7-9 May 2026, he took the opportunity to offer suggestions to Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, as head of Thailand's government delegation, regarding the current challenges facing Thailand’s foreign relations amid great power competition with ASEAN as a critical arena. However, Thailand’s role in ASEAN and ASEAN’s regional influence have both declined.
Today, we face major problems that are not unique to Thailand but impact the economies and security of ASEAN countries as well. The crucial task for Thai leadership now is to transform its international role decisively—if the government has the political will and courage to assume a leading position.
I therefore propose three agendas that the Thai Prime Minister can use the ASEAN platform to address: the overlapping maritime territorial dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, the energy crisis, and environmental issues.
The first issue is resolving the overlapping maritime territorial dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. The Prachachon Party views the Cabinet’s recent decision to cancel MOU 44 as risky for Thailand’s international image. The party believes MOU 44 may benefit Thailand in safeguarding national interests. Since the Cabinet canceled MOU 44 on 5 May and Prime Minister Anutin may have a chance to meet Cambodia’s Prime Minister, this is a crucial opportunity to reach a settlement. Bilateral negotiations, where Thailand controls the pace, are the best way to protect national interests rather than pushing the dispute into compulsory conciliation under UNCLOS, which involves a third party mediating and whose outcomes may be unpredictable.
The next issue concerns the energy crisis. The conflict in the Middle East has caused significant global energy price volatility, directly impacting energy costs and living expenses in Thailand. This impact is not unique to Thailand but a shared challenge for ASEAN countries, especially those reliant on energy imports, making them vulnerable to global fluctuations.
In these challenging times, ASEAN member states must unite to promote cross-border electricity grid interconnections. Thailand should take a leadership role in advancing the ASEAN Power Grid to concretely reduce dependence on energy imports from outside the region.
This electricity grid interconnection will not only improve energy management efficiency and reduce external risks but also open new regional investment opportunities. Thailand has strategic advantages in geography, centrally located with infrastructure ready to serve as the hub driving this grid’s success.
The final issue is environmental. Regarding transboundary haze pollution, ASEAN has had the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) for over 20 years, but the government has yet to effectively use international mechanisms to improve the situation. Consequently, about 10 million people in Thailand suffer from toxic dust annually. At the same time, Thailand imports agricultural products originating from burning in neighboring countries, making it both a "pollution victim" and a "polluter" simultaneously.
I propose that Prime Minister Anutin use the ASEAN Summit to present Thailand’s readiness to become ASEAN’s environmental leader by establishing an Air Pollution Command Center (CACC), elevating it to an ASEAN-level coordination center capable of issuing early warnings and planning to manage transboundary pollution sources accurately from each member country. This should be coupled with mandatory standards for agricultural products originating from burning, establishing supply chain verification criteria, and serious management of products from cross-border burning, including traceability measures to prevent companies from falsely claiming to purchase domestic corn when importing it.
Regarding toxic contamination in the Kok, Sai, Ruak, and Mekong rivers, the government must elevate efforts through ASEAN forums as the primary mechanism to monitor and resolve transboundary pollution at its source. Beyond relying on international cooperation frameworks and obligations, negotiations should accelerate with all parties, including the United Nations Development Programme, to collect water and sediment samples upstream in Myanmar, leading to a systematic pollution source assessment.
Simultaneously, the government should seize this opportunity to foster cooperation resulting in serious measures to address water pollution from mining in neighboring countries, using the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework, which includes Thailand, Myanmar, and China, as a key mechanism. Furthermore, negotiations with China should expand from bilateral Thailand-China cooperation to the ASEAN-China framework via the China-ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Center to enhance bargaining power and the effectiveness of regional problem management.
These three agendas show that the main obstacle is not a lack of mechanisms or knowledge to manage the problems, but a lack of political will. I hope Prime Minister Anutin will use this ASEAN Summit as an opportunity to restore Thailand’s leadership role and demonstrate that ASEAN, led by Thailand, can cooperate to resolve cross-border problems affecting people’s lives. This will restore public confidence in ASEAN as a reliable partner and lead to shared long-term benefits—namely, the well-being of Thai people and all ASEAN citizens.