The three examples cited above are success stories that could be emulated by
other countries in the reg}on (Schofield, 2007). This is despite the fact that the
political will came late on the Thailand side in the Malaysia- Thailand Agreement;
and in the case of the Malaysia-Vietnam Agreement, both governments chose
instead to delegate authority of the right to activate the agreement to the two big
petroleum companies in their respective countries. The Vietnam-Thailand
Agreement portends to the readiness of Vietnam to work closely with countries in Southeast Asia to settle the other remaining maritime disputes in the South
China Sea.