Saturday, 26 March 2011

Thai PM positive over two boundary meetings

via CAAI

March 25, 2011

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday voiced his confidence that the Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) and the Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) meetings could still be arranged.

Prime Minister Abhisit stated that the GBC meeting would still be held although Army Chief General Prayut Chan-ocha earlier expressed his concern if the meeting would be organized in Indonesia, not in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as initially scheduled.

The army chief stated recently that he did not wish Indonesia or any third country to meddle in the bilateral mechanism of either GBC or JBC meeting.

Indonesia, the current chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), earlier proposed to hold JBC and military- led GBC on April 7 and 8.

As for the Thai-Cambodian JBC meeting, the prime minister elaborated that both sides were ready to go on with the talks, which would be made in a bilateral manner while a resolution on whether to allow an observer's participation would be reached very soon.

The prime minister believed that Indonesia would understand that it had to wait until both sides reach a mutual agreement prior to sending observers to the meeting.

Thailand and Cambodia earlier agreed to allow Indonesian observers to monitor a ceasefire in a deadly border dispute between the two countries in February this year.

ASEAN foreign ministers said in a statement in Jakarta that they welcomed a commitment made by Thailand and Cambodia to avoid further armed clashes and urged both sides to resume bilateral negotiations as soon as possible.

Source: Xinhua

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