Malaysia offers to host three-way talks with Thailand and Cambodia

Malaysia, currently chairing ASEAN, has proposed hosting a trilateral meeting with Thailand and Cambodia’s foreign ministers to discuss the ongoing border tension, Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said today.

Maris said that he is open to the proposal in principle, but emphasised that the priority at the moment should be the extraordinary General Border Committee (GBC) meeting, between the Thai and Cambodian defence ministers, which began in Kuala Lumpur yesterday with a secretariat meeting.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan is reported to agree with Thailand’s position.

Maris said he conveyed to his Malaysian counterpart Thailand’s concern over Cambodia’s plan to take temporary observers to the border area before the GBC reaches a conclusion and raised the issue of the ongoing flow of misinformation from the Cambodian side, which he said is unhelpful in resolving the situation.

He asked Malaysia to help by reiterating these concerns to Cambodia.

The GBC is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.