No easy solution to border row, says TejMonday July 28, 2008THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL
Bangkok PostThailand is keen to keep the border conflict with Cambodia strictly a bilateral affair and hopes Phnom Penh brings no preconditions to today's talks on solving the dispute, says new Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag.
Cambodia, which was awarded sovereignty over nearby Preah Vihear temple in a 1962 World Court ruling, is threatening to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council.
Mr Tej, however, who leads Thai negotiators into today's meeting in Siem Reap, said that could complicate the issue.
"Attempts to bring the bilateral issue to broader frameworks at this stage could complicate the situation and, in turn, produce undesirable repercussions on good relations and goodwill," Mr Tej said.
A Foreign Ministry source said the dispute could take many months to settle, and Cambodia should not expect too much from today's meeting.
The dispute is mainly over 4.6sqkm of scrubland near the temple.
The talks come just one day after Mr Tej was sworn into the job.
He will meet his counterpart from Cambodia, Hor Namhong, as troops from both countries continue to face each other inside disputed territory at the border.
Mr Tej, who is also chairman of the Thai-Cambodian Friendship Association set up in 2003, has promised to try his best to unravel the issue.
"I accept that this problem is complicated but I believe in the basis of the long-standing relationship between the two countries.
"We can join hands to seek a way out of the problem," he said yesterday after a one-hour meeting with staff of the Foreign Ministry, who were preparing information for today's meeting.
Former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama resigned this month following pressure over his handling of Cambodia's listing of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site, which sparked the latest conflict.
The government is worried that even after today's talks, Cambodia will try to drag the issue into a multilateral forum such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the United Nations Security Council, as it attempted to do last week.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said the government hopes Phnom Penh will be open-minded and come to the meeting without preconditions. Negotiations on such a sensitive issue need more time, not just one or two meetings, he said.
"The minister said he will try his best to talk to the Cambodian foreign minister," he said.
"It is his first task - we hope we can find a solution on some level, but this issue is sensitive and complex.
"We will definitely need more rounds of talks. The boundary is an important and complex issue and it needs time to solve, step by step and slowly," Mr Tharit said.
The bilateral talks are seen as an effective means to improve understanding between the two countries.
Nonetheless, Thailand will urge Cambodia to comply with the 2000 memorandum of understanding on the surveying and demarcation of the border, emphasising that neither side should cause damage to the environment in areas which have yet to be demarcated.
Since signing the MoU in 2000, Cambodia has allowed its civilians and soldiers into the disputed zone.
