Hun Sen, Abhisit meet, but problems remain

Mon, 05/09/2011
Dina Indrasafitri
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Just hours after trading words at the ASEAN summit, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen shook hands on Sunday morning in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The leaders then sat face-to-face in a triangular formation in a room at the Jakarta Convention Center, with ASEAN summit chair Yudhoyono flanked by Abhisit to his left and Hun Sen to his right.

Foreign ministers from the three nations attended the heads of government.

Yudhoyono was accompanied by Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and by Teuku Faizasyah, his special adviser for foreign relations.

The President initiated the meeting, fearing that Cambodia and Thailand’s border dispute might reduce the summit to a single-issue meeting and undermine Indonesia’s credibility as summit host and ASEAN chair.

Critics doubted that the meeting could influence the dispute.

However, Abhisit, a young but talented politico, and Hun Sen, an old political cat who has been active since the 1970s, both acknowledged Indonesia’s positive leadership, stating that the atmosphere had improved on Sunday.

However, the pair said that problems still remained, and agreed to allow their foreign ministers to stay an additional day in Jakarta to continue to discussions. “At the end, the President of Indonesia gave a recommendation to the prime ministers of Cambodia and Thailand. The foreign ministers of Cambodia and Thailand will stay another day to work with the foreign minister of Indonesia. This is the role of the chair of ASEAN, who provided recommendations to find a solution,” Hun Sen said at a press conference after the summit.

Abhisit, in an exclusive interview with The Jakarta Post, said: “The atmosphere was better than [Saturday] when [Hun Sen] suddenly launched a long speech in the plenary session. Differences remain — that has to be recognized — and the complexity remains. But at least we are talking — which is important.

“We’ll see how the foreign ministers, who have been tasked to follow up, how they will do,” Abhisit said.

At another press conference, Yudhoyono said that he had offered Cambodia and Thailand several solutions, such as establishing a joint border committee to settle problems peacefully since the two nations had fundamental differences.

Cambodia and Thailand fought along their border just a week after Cambodia’s Preah Vihear temple was proclaimed a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008. The conflict erupted after Thailand laid claim to a 4.6-square-kilometer area near the temple.

The ensuing exchange of artillery fire killed and wounded soldiers and civilians on both sides, causing tens of thousands of villagers on both sides of the border nearby the disputed area to flee to safe shelters.