Phnom Penh (Cambodia): Cambodia's prime minister plans to meet with his Thai counterpart later this week to discuss the tense border dispute between the two Southeast Asian neighbors, Cambodian officials said today.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat will meet on the sidelines of a summit of leaders from Asia and the European Union that opens in Beijing on Friday, said Sri Thamrongk, an adviser to Hun Sen.
A Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Koy Kuong, said the "current standoff at the Cambodian-Thai border" will be the most important topic at the talks.
A Thai government spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
It would be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since a deadly gunbattle erupted October 15 between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in a disputed border area near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.
The fighting, which killed two Cambodian soldiers and wounded 10 from both sides, sparked fears of war between the countries.
Thai army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkumnerd said earlier that military officials from the two sides agreed last Thursday to hold joint patrols to minimize the chance of new clashes.
But Gen Ke Kim Yan, commander in chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, denied any deal for joint patrols had been reached. He said the two countries had only agreed to maintain their current troop deployments in the disputed area and inform each other about any troop movements.
Last week's fighting was the latest flare-up in a decades-old dispute over a stretch of jungle near the Preah Vihear temple. The World Court awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962,but sovereignty over surrounding land has never been clearly resolved.
