ASEAN leaders support RI to facilitate settlement of Thai-Cambodian border

ASEAN leaders have agreed to encourage a peaceful settlement of the Thai-Cambodian border conflict, and appreciated and supported the continued role of Indonesia as the current ASEAN chair to facilitate the effort.

All the ASEAN leaders also agreed that ASEAN must be at the forefront of every effort to settle any dispute peacefully, including the Thai-Cambodian border conflict, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

On Sunday morning, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as state guests. The President later invited them to a tripartite meeting.

The three leaders were seated face-to-face in a triangular formation with Abhisit Vejjajiva on the left side of Yudhoyono and Hun Sen on his right.

During the meeting the three leaders were accompanied by their respective foreign ministers. Yudhoyono was accompanied by Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and the president`s special staff for foreign relations Teuku Faizasyah. 

The two state guests came to the Jakarta Convention Hall to meet Yudhoyono at 08.00 a.m. or one hour before the 18th ASEAN Summit on the second day on Sunday began.

Earlier, Hun Sen urged ASEAN leaders to make every effort to ensure that all relevant parties involved in the Thai-Cambodian border conflict would cooperate with and accept a border monitoring team from Indonesia.

In his address to the main session of the summit on Saturday, Hun Sen said the image and credibility of ASEAN would be threatened if the effort to create a permanent ceasefire could not materialize immediately as originally planned.

"I hope for a permanent ceasefire, to be supported by the presence of an Indonesian monitoring team, to create a situation conducive to the peaceful settlement of the border conflict between the two countries," he said.

He hoped for immediate deployment of observers in the disputed area to monitor the ceasefire agreed upon at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in February 2011.

In response, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the open conflict between Thailand and Cambodia could influence the ASEAN credibility. "(But) we must make sure that every problem must be settled at local and bilateral levels, and if necessary, facilitated by the region," he said.

He reiterated that the bilateral mechanism of settling the border conflict was still going on and alleged that the Cambodian government intended to bring the issue to international level. "The problem can be solved bilaterally," he said.

Yet he appreciated Indonesia`s proposal to deploy observers in the disputed area. "There are a number of technical issues that must be discussed... I warmly welcome the offer by the host (Indonesia) to facilitate a meeting between Cambodia and Thailand," he said. 

Cambodia and Thailand had a border conflict just a week after Cambodia`s Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.

The conflict erupted after Thailand laid claim to 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of shrubs next to the temple. The exchange of artillery fire that ensued killed and wounded many soldiers and civilians on both sides, and caused tens of thousands of the two countries` villagers nearby the disputed area to flee to safe shelters.

Since the past years Indonesia and other ASEAN member states have tried to support both Thailand and Cambodia in solving their border problem through peaceful negotiations.

Source: ANTARA