Thai FM no show as JBC meeting ends

In between: Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (right) talks to Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on the sidelines of the two-day Thailand-Cambodia Joint Boundary Commission meeting in Bogor, West Java, on Friday. JP/Ricky Yudhistira

Sat, 04/09/2011
Mustaqim Adamrah
The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

The Indonesia-brokered Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) meeting on demarcation for land boundaries in Bogor, south of Jakarta, ended on Friday, but the results of the meeting remain unclear.

Despite the fact that the meeting involved only senior Cambodian and Thai officials, the absence of Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya in Bogor, while Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was present, proves that Indonesia’s diplomacy was limited and that Thailand had humiliated Indonesia as the agreed broker, an expert said.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia had no knowledge of the results of the two-day JBC meeting but hoped both delegations would inform the archipelago of the results, which were expected to be passed on to other ASEAN members for a progress report.

“We cannot anticipate the outcome [of the JBC meeting],” he told reporters at the Bogor Palace on the sidelines of the meeting.

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