Original report from Phnom Penh
14 October 2009
Cambodia’s foreign minister said Wednesday he would continue push to put Cambodia’s border dispute with Thailand on the Asean agenda, following reports in Thai media that Bangkok officials were misquoted in their desire to abandon bilateral solutions.
Both sides have attempted to resolve the dispute among themselves since July 2008, when troops amassed on the border amid heightening tensions. Little has come of a series of talks between military officials, diplomats and state leaders.
A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman said this week his minister had been quoted out of context as saying Thailand would seek a “neutral” body to facilitate resolution, a statement that led Cambodia to push for the border dispute to be included on a summit agenda when Asean leaders meet later this month.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong told reporters Wednesday Cambodia was awaiting an official response from the Thais, not media reports, or Prime Minister Hun Sen would raise the border issue at the Oct. 23-25 Asean summit.
“The border issue is an important problem, and we cannot solve this issue following spokesmen or the press,” Hor Namhong said. “Cambodia has until now not received an official response from the Thai side. If the Thais don’t respond [officially], we will raise up this issue at the Asean summit.”
Panitan Watanayagorn, deputy secretary-general for the Thai prime minister, said from Bangkok the government would be sending an official response soon, and he encouraged more bilateral attempts solve the border issue.
Both sides have attempted to resolve the dispute among themselves since July 2008, when troops amassed on the border amid heightening tensions. Little has come of a series of talks between military officials, diplomats and state leaders.
A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman said this week his minister had been quoted out of context as saying Thailand would seek a “neutral” body to facilitate resolution, a statement that led Cambodia to push for the border dispute to be included on a summit agenda when Asean leaders meet later this month.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong told reporters Wednesday Cambodia was awaiting an official response from the Thais, not media reports, or Prime Minister Hun Sen would raise the border issue at the Oct. 23-25 Asean summit.
“The border issue is an important problem, and we cannot solve this issue following spokesmen or the press,” Hor Namhong said. “Cambodia has until now not received an official response from the Thai side. If the Thais don’t respond [officially], we will raise up this issue at the Asean summit.”
Panitan Watanayagorn, deputy secretary-general for the Thai prime minister, said from Bangkok the government would be sending an official response soon, and he encouraged more bilateral attempts solve the border issue.
3 comments:
It's about time that Cambodia internationalize this border issues with Thailand. The only bilateral solution acceptable to the Thai politicians is the one that Thailand can get more land from Cambodia. Both sides connot agree on anything, even the name of the Temple, so how can they resolve any border issues at all?
good for cambodia. the fact of the matter is cambodia had already try to work and cooperate with the thai's request for bilateral work; however, it's been over a year now and nothing came out of it except thailand's joke and going around in circle all the time. so, as a khmer person, i'm glad to see that cambodia is finally decided to take another approach whether thailand prefer the bilateral or whatever. thailand gov't is very ineffective with their extremist group of unruly group and cater to them all the time in order to make trouble with cambodia. that is thai's problem, not cambodia, ok! it's time for cambodia to internationalized this issue once and for all, really! good going cambodia, keep up the good work for khmer people. in fact, cambodia does have our own national interest as well as thailand, so there!
by the way, thailand reluctant to go international is a sign that they did indeed violated the international law and had something shameful to hide from the international scene, really! hey, cambodia is not in the dark ages anymore, get over it, thailand!
yes, be persistent, cambodia. we are going in the right direction against thailand and its extremist group of pad thugs who dreamed of robbing cambodia's preah vihear temple and surrounding access land, really! keep up the good work for the interest of cambodia and khmer people as well. god bless cambodia.
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