BANGKOK: Southeast Asia's joint effort to tackle global issues such as an energy crisis caused by the Iran war is complicated by internal friction over tension between Thailand and Cambodia and civil war in Myanmar, a senior Cambodian diplomat said on Wednesday (May 6).
Asia is the world's top oil importing region and the Iran war has sent many of the 11 members of the Asean bloc scrambling for alternatives to insulate their economies from the worst of the energy crisis triggered by the Middle East conflict.
"Asean needs to put our house in order and sort things out as soon as possible," Cambodia's envoy to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Kung Phoak, told Reuters ahead of a summit of the bloc in the Philippines this week.
The Southeast Asian conflicts will figure in discussions at a leaders' summit on Friday, as Asean members push for the ratification of an oil-sharing deal to strengthen regional resilience in energy.
"The sooner we can get all these problems resolved, I think it enhances our ability and gives us more time to think about what we can do more, and not just to respond to the (energy) crisis but also to prepare Asean for the future," he added.
The energy crisis is accelerating efforts to ratify and put into operation the Asean Petroleum Security Agreement that aims to boost members' coordination to protect fuel supplies, he said.
Many governments in the region have moved to limit fuel use, conserve energy or clamp down on hoarding, while several have curbed exports and launched diplomatic efforts to ensure access.
REGIONAL CONFLICTS
Asean's unity is challenged by the grinding civil war raging in Myanmar since a 2021 coup, and tension still simmering between Thailand and Cambodia despite a December ceasefire in their deadly border war.
Four months after the neighbours signed a truce, Kung Phoak said they had failed to make headway on holding talks to demarcate sections of their land border, with Thai forces still occupying some Cambodian territory.
"Leaving the situation lingering like this is not in the benefit of either of us," he said, adding that the Thai government had not responded to Cambodian requests for a meeting within a framework to negotiate border issues.
Kung Phoak, who is Cambodia's secretary of state for foreign affairs and international cooperation, also decried a Thai move on Tuesday to end a decades-old pact aimed at resolving disputes over potentially oil-rich maritime areas.
Still, he said he hoped the maritime disputes could be quickly resolved through a process under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Thailand's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters, but its government said on Tuesday it was still committed to negotiations.
Kung Phoak also welcomed the transfer of Myanmar's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to house arrest by the military-backed government, saying he hoped it imparts positive momentum to resolve the civil war that followed a 2021 coup.
On Tuesday, Thailand's foreign minister told Reuters he wanted Myanmar's new foreign minister to brief Asean in the near future, while the Philippines urged it to allow the bloc's special envoy to meet Suu Kyi.
"The general mood of Asean member states at the moment is that people also want to look at what's next ... because when we are talking with Myanmar people they are yearning for peace, stability and improvement of their wellbeing," Kung Phoak said. - Reuters
