Amid heightened tensions caused by overlapping maritime claims in Asia in recent months, business is humming as usual in one corner of South-east Asia where maritime borders have not been settled.

In 1979, Malaysia and Thailand signed an agreement to jointly explore, as equal partners, oil and gas in a disputed offshore zone in the Gulf of Thailand.

Called the Joint Development Area or JDA, the zone is located off Malaysia’s Kelantan state and Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat and Pattani.

At 7,250 sq km, the wedge-shaped JDA is about 10 times the size of Singapore.

… The JDA “is one positive option as a way forward for peaceful cooperation, and demonstration of friendship and mutual trust”, said Mr David Han, research analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.