THE sixth Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Committee (JBC) meeting in Phnom Penh concluded successfully with these talks being an important step towards installing of border markers along the 800-kilometre border, Naewna newspaper said this afternoon (June 15).
The Thai Foreign Ministry said in a Facebook post that Thai Ambassador Prasas Prasasvinitchai, chairman of JBC, and Mr. Lam Chea, minister in charge of the State Secretariat of Border Affairs of Cambodia and the co-chairman, co-chaired the closing ceremony and signed the joint meeting minutes.
The discussions were smooth and friendly with both sides emphasising the importance of JBC as the main bilateral mechanism for border negotiations.
Thailand will be hosting the next JBC meeting in September this year.
Currently, Thailand and Cambodia have three main mechanisms for resolving border issues:
(1) JBC, which is an important bilateral mechanism for discussing technical and international legal issues;
(2) General Border Committee (GBC), which is a high-level bilateral security mechanism co-chaired by the Thai and Cambodian defence ministers to discuss appropriate guidelines and measures to promote cooperation and maintain peace and order in the border areas of both countries.
(3) Regional Border Committee (RBC), which is a bilateral military mechanism to discuss at the local level about management, development and solving problems that may occur in the border area. The co-chairs are army commanders or equivalent positions.
Meanwhile Mr. Sarapong Sriyanong, adviser on security affairs coordination and acting secretary-general of the National Security Council called an urgent meeting after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announced that he would himself procure electricity supply and Internet service as his country would no longer obtain them from Thailand.
Sarapong said the meeting would assess the situation and course of action after Cambodia announced that it would stop buying telecommunications signals and electricity supply from Thailand from tomorrow (June 16) at 2 p.m.
Earlier Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra clarified that Thailand does not have a policy to expel foreign workers from the country.
Thailand is open to diversity, welcomes foreign workers, provides welfare care for workers who legally enter the country to work according to their rights, and has always adhered to human rights principles, she said.
CAPTION:
The closing ceremony of the sixth Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Committee meeting. Photos: Foreign Ministry Facebook page.
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