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Phnom Penh – Hor Nam Hong, vice-PM and minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said that he just received the declaration issued by Surin Pitsuwan, the ASEAN Secretary-general, from a Thai news agency. Surin Pitsuwan’s declaration stated that “if any country member feels that the Thai-Cambodian border dispute affects ASEAN's image, the foreign ministers from other eight country members (except from Thailand and Cambodia) can raise the issue for discussion at the regional pact meeting.”

Surin Pitsuwan stated also that “if anyone of either party raises this topic at the meeting, it will be a good opportunity to help find appropriate solutions to the conflict”

Hor Nam Hong said that: “We can see that information from Thailand is all mixed up. First, Thailand’s PM Abhisit said successively to PM Hun Sen that the resolution will be bilateral and this issue will not be raised at the international level. Mr. Kasit Piromya made a declaration in the past that he wanted to set up an ASEAN arbitration to resolve this problem. I send a letter asking to raise this issue at the ASEAN meeting in Hua Hin, they replied back to me that they did not say that, the newspaper quote was wrong. Now Mr. Surin Pitsuwan, the [ASEAN] Secretary-general made the statement above, therefore, Thailand is all mixed up with this problem. The ASEAN leaders meeting is not public, only state and government leaders will be present, nobody else will be there (there will be 10 people only).”

Hor Nam Hong indicated: “I am not certain about the meeting, but in my personal opinion … I’d say that Samdach Dek Cho Hun Sen could raise the problem of the Cambodian-Thai border dispute around Preah Vihear temple during this [ASEAN] private meeting.”

Hor Nam Hong added that: “However, this time, Samdach Dek Cho may not raise this problem to find a resolution. This time, it is for Thailand not to raise this problem at the international level when it agreed with Cambodia to resolve it bilaterally.”

He added that: “In the past, in Spain, a Thai minister in charge of environment raised this issue in Spain, saying that the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site could affect the border security. They [Thailand] raised this issue at an international forum once already while it agreed again and again to resolve the issue bilaterally. In the past, when Mr. Abhisit went to the UN recently, he met with the UN Secretary-general, he also raised the Preah Vihear issue with the UN Secretary-general again.”

Hor Nam Hong criticized that it was not Cambodia that raised this issue at the international level. “We (Cambodia) respect our words not to raise this issue, we resolve this problem bilaterally, but it is Thailand that did not respect [this agreement],” Hor Nam Hong said.

The Cambodian minister of Foreign Affairs and his Thai counterpart met each other up to 3 times, and they agreed with each other on a number of points that lead to the installation of border posts starting since 2008. The border commission led by Var Kim Hong held 3 discussion sessions [with Thailand] between 2008 and April 2009, and [both sides] agreed to speed up the installation of border markers because the border issue is extremely sensitive. After the agreements, Thailand went silent, Thailand claimed that [Thai law] Article 190 requires parliament ratification, but its parliament did not ratify and the Thai government did not push its parliament to ratify it at all.”

“Therefore, the past negotiations were a waste of time and money, they were useless meetings. Discussions were only made on paper, but they were useless. Therefore, talking about bilateral discussions, agreements, then there is no outcome, what shall we do…? How much longer should we hold bilateral discussions…? We agreed with each other, but they did not ratify it, what else can we do to resolve this problem?” Hor Nam Hong said.