Thailand and Cambodia will hold talks in Hanoi

Thailand and Cambodia will hold talks on the disputed border area on the sidelines of the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Hanoi late this month, Thai media on Tuesday quoted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as saying.

According to MCOT news online, Abhisit said he had met his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen on the sidelines of the 8th Asia- Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit, being held in Brussels during October 4-5, and discussed with him the border dispute over the 4. 6-square-km area near an ancient temple Preah Vihear.

"There is no conclusion in the latest discussion which has mainly exchanged views over the dispute in an effort to press ahead for progress in tackling the issue apart from current efforts being made through parliamentary procedures and the Thai- Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC), " he said.

The prime minister said the two countries would prepare information related to the conflicts and would hold talks again when they meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, on Oct 28-30.

Regarding concerns over encroachment in overlapping areas, Abhisit conceded that there were some groups of people in both countries wanted to deal with the issue in an aggressive way, which may lead to clashes. Their leaders are duty-bound to reach better understanding among their peoples to prevent violence.

Thailand and Cambodia have age-old dispute over the 900-year- old Hindu Preah Vihear Temple, a World's Heritage site, and its adjacent area of 4.6 sq.km.

The international court ruled the temple belonging to Cambodia more than 40 years ago, but border dispute over the area around the temple has remained a fuse in the two countries' relationship.

The bilateral relationship between the two countries was strained as Cambodian government filed a management plan for the Preah Vihear temple to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which was supposed to be discussed on the World Heritage Committee's 34th annual meeting in July.

On the meeting in Brasilia, the Thai delegation said the layout of the plan enclosed with the document did not clearly specify the area and apparently violated the Thai border.

World Heritage Committee (WHC) on July 30 decided to postpone the discussion on Cambodia's management plan to its meeting next year in Bahrain.