Cabinet and NSC in special meeting ahead of GBC meeting in Malaysia

The Thai Cabinet and the National Security Council are scheduled to hold a special meeting this afternoon, to approve the outcome of the meetings of the General Border Committee’s (GBC) secretariats of Thailand and Cambodia.

The secretariats, which have been meeting in Malaysia since Monday, managed to reach an agreement on the Thai proposals early this morning. The outcome of the meeting has already been forwarded to their respective GBC delegations for approval, before the GBC summit meeting on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur.

Thai Deputy Defence Minister Nattaphon Nakpanich will lead the Thai delegation at the GBC meeting, facilitated by Malaysia, with observers present from China and the United States.

Details of the agreement worked out by the secretariats were not available at the time of this report. It is reported, however, that the Cambodian secretariat consulted their government, after they could not reach a decision on some of Thailand’s proposals.

In the meantime, the Foreign Ministry has scheduled an online conference with all of its ambassadors and consul generals overseas on Thursday, to map out pro-active efforts to counter propaganda and the spread of fake news by Cambodia.

Maratee Andamo, deputy spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said that the online conference is intended to keep Thai envoys abreast of developments in the Thai-Cambodian border situation, so they can explain to governments and local media in their host countries about the actual situation.

Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, spokesman for the Thai-Cambodian Border Situation Administration Task Force Centre, said today that the border situation is normal, although Cambodia has strengthened some of its fortifications, but without troop reinforcement.

He also claimed that unidentified drones have been detected in Thai air space near the border, despite the nationwide ban on flying them until August 15th.

At Chong An Ma border pass, he said Cambodian troops tried to remove the barbed wire fence, installed by Thailand, but there was no violence as soldiers of the two countries communicated with each other. The fence has since been repaired.