By Peter Janssen and Robert Carmichael
DPA
Bangkok/Phnom Penh – The gathering of South-East Asian leaders in Jakarta this weekend promises more drama than past summits, which are not usually known for their diplomatic fireworks.
The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit will bring together Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose armies last month clashed on their common border leaving eight soldiers dead on each side, and around 70 wounded.
Fighting at the Thai-Cambodian border has flared on and off for the past three years since UNESCO named the Cambodian border temple of Preah Vihear a World Heritage Site, due to an ongoing dispute over a 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land adjacent to the 11th-century Hindu monument.
Indonesia, this year’s ASEAN chair, has taken an unusually proactive role in trying to resolve the border spat, but few observers expect a breakthrough this weekend.
Indonesia’s offer last February to post observers in the disputed border zone in a bid to mitigate fighting has run into obstacles.
The Thai cabinet on Tuesday agreed to the Indonesian observers, but on the condition that Cambodian troops withdraw from the Preah Vihear temple complex.
That condition was ‘not acceptable,’ Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said. ‘Cambodian soldiers cannot be removed from Cambodian territory. As Prime Minister Hun Sen has repeated again and again: both sides can stay where they are.’
It is unlikely that Hun Sen and Abhisit will hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit. Abhisit said Wednesday he would not meet separately with Hun Sen, insisting that the recent border clash was far from coincidental.
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