BANGKOK: Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow (pic) said after Tuesday’s (March 10) Cabinet meeting that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet had posted that talks with Thailand on the return of border areas would be held after Songkran.
Sihasak said Cambodia had proposed a meeting of the Thailand-Cambodia Joint Boundary Commission (JBC). He added that any negotiations must remain within the agreed framework, and that any issue concerning the return of territory would have to be addressed at the meeting as part of ongoing boundary demarcation efforts.
He said Thailand would first have to wait for a new government to take office before deciding when the Thai side would be ready for a JBC meeting.
He wants talks as a result of the latest fighting, Sihasak said. He added that landmine clearance and the suppression of scam networks were not part of the JBC forum, as these were matters Cambodia was already obliged to carry out following the ceasefire talks.
Sihasak said that if Cambodia was not yet ready for mine clearance while Thailand was, Cambodia would still have to cooperate. He added that scam operations were a global issue, not one involving only Thailand and Cambodia, and said Cambodia needed to take the matter seriously because it knew where such networks were based.
He said that if Cambodia wanted a JBC meeting and wanted to move boundary demarcation forward, it would have to clear landmines so the area was safe, rather than opening the meeting simply to discuss the issues Cambodia wished to raise, as there were other matters that also needed to be addressed.
Sihasak said the role of the JBC was to handle boundary demarcation in accordance with international law. As for progress on revoking MOU 44, he said the matter should await the new government’s policy statement to Parliament, adding that there had already been some discussion that it should be handled by the incoming administration.
Asked about US President Donald Trump’s statement that the war in the Middle East would end soon, Sihasak said that would be a good outcome because everyone had been affected.
However, he said the conflict should end in a sustainable way through negotiations and peaceful means, not through military action, which might not prove durable. He stressed that the issue had to be resolved through peaceful dialogue.
He was also asked about demands from trans groups seeking to use the title “Miss”, after reporting difficulties when entering certain countries. Sihasak said he was aware of the problem and that, in practice, such matters could usually be clarified with immigration officials in the country concerned.
He said the legal and regulatory details in Thailand would need to be studied further, especially as Thailand had already recognised marriage equality. Any change to the title “Miss”, he added, would also require amendments to official documents and to the status shown in passports. - The Nation/ANN
