JAKARTA, May 5, 2011 (AFP) – A bloody border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia looks set to dominate an ASEAN summit in Indonesia this weekend, casting doubt on the bloc’s rhetoric about regional integration by 2015.
Analysts and diplomats said the fighting, which has left at least 18 people dead since April 22, is expected to be a key topic at the two-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta from Saturday.
Current ASEAN chair Indonesia has been leading mediation efforts, but although the fighting has eased the situation remains tense and deadly firefights break out almost daily.
“The Thai-Cambodia border dispute poses a definite challenge to ASEAN’s credibility and its objective of creating an ASEAN Community by 2015,” said Professor Carl Thayer of the University of New South Wales in Australia.
“ASEAN’s failure to broker a political solution will have a very negative impact on ASEAN’s credibility as a viable regional organisation,” he told AFP.
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