November 06, 2009
(Posted by CAAI news Media)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday it will propose the cabinet meeting on Tuesday to revoke a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on overlapping maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Thailand signed with Cambodia in 2001.
The MOU was signed by then-foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on June 14, 2001, under the Thaksin Shinawatra-led Administration.
The agreement enables Thailand and Cambodia, which share 26,000square kilometers of the overlapping maritime area, to jointly develop oil and gas projects.
Speaking in a phone interview from Japan, Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said it won't be the best interests for Thailand to hold further talks with Cambodia under the same framework since now Thaksin is an economic adviser to the Cambodian government, Thai News Agency reported.
Kasit is in Japan's capital Tokyo, where he is attending the first Mekong-Japan Summit on Friday and Saturday.
Moreover, over the past eight years concrete progress was not made under this MOU's framework, hence it should be cancelled, Kasit said.
Instead, the Thai foreign ministry has viewed that there are other options under international laws for Thailand to deal with this matter, Kasit said.
The decision was made after the Cambodian government on Thursday evening announced recall of its ambassador to Thailand in response to the Thai government's recall of its ambassador Prasas Prasavinitchai to Cambodia.
The diplomatic retaliation occurred after Thaksin was officially appointed as adviser of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Royal Government of Cambodia King Norodom Sihamoni.
Thaksin was ousted by the military coup in September 2006, in accusation of corruption, and has been kept in exile since then.
He returned to Thailand in February 2008 to face corruption charges, but he later fled into exile again and was convicted in absentia.
Source: Xinhua
No comments:
Post a Comment