Cambodia to attend ASEAN summit in Thailand

There may be tension and armed clashes between Thailand and Cambodia in the border area but Cambodia has shown maturity in making a decision to attend the attend the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Thailand, Chinese-language newspaper the Jian Hua Daily on Wednesday quoted an official as saying.

“We will not boycott the summit in December, even as we have border dispute,” Phay Siphan, secretary of state of the Cambodian Council of Ministers told a seminar here on Tuesday. “We want to keep the friendship and cooperative ties with our neighbor countries,” he added.

The clash in October killed two Cambodian soldiers and wounded two others, after Thai troops entered the disputed area over sovereignty claim. Talking about the border dispute, Phay Siphan said that both Cambodia and Thailand currently need to realize their border demarcation in accordance with the conventionally recognized maps 100 years ago by the French colonialist which was made with the agreement of the Thai authority then.

There are now 73 demarcation posts along the 805-km border between Cambodia and Thailand, 50 percent of which are recognized by the Thai side. Cambodia still plans to plant hundreds more posts there in order to specify the border line.