Indonesia reports progress in Thai-Cambodian border dispute talks

May 9, 2011, 14:16 GMT

Jakarta - The foreign ministers of Cambodia and Thailand have agreed on a deal allowing for the deployment of monitors in a disputed border area, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Monday.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and his Thai counterpart, Kasit Piromya, met to try to iron out their differences after the countries' prime ministers failed to reach an agreement during talks at an Association of South-East Asian Nation (ASEAN) summit on Sunday.

'The achievement this afternoon exceeded my expectations,' Natalegawai said after the talks that he mediated in Jakarta.

'I'm not underestimating the scale of the problem, but they have overcome their mutually exclusive demands,' Natalegawa said.

Indonesia, this year's ASEAN chairman, has tried to facilitate negotiations over joint claims to a 4.6 square-kilometre plot of land adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple.

The sides had signed up to Indonesia's proposal to send observers to monitor a ceasefire on their common border, but the deployment had been delayed because Bangkok demanded that Cambodian troops and civilians withdraw from the temple site.

For its part, Cambodia had insisted that the monitoring team must be deployed first, before any negotiation on troop withdrawal could resume under the General Border Committee.

In a compromise, Hor Namhong and Kasit agreed that Thailand's formal approval for the deployment of the monitoring team would be made on the same date as the announcement of the committee's next meeting, Natalegawa said.

He also said the two had agreed that the deployment of the observers would be made at the same time as the next committee meeting.

Monday's agreement must still be approved by the countries' leaders, however.

The border dispute has flared into several skirmishes over the past three years. Eighteen people were killed in armed clashes in the last two weeks alone.

In February, Cambodia appealed to the United Nations Security Council to step in on the issue, but the council entrusted that role to ASEAN.

Late last month, Phnom Penh petitioned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to intervene.

In 1962, the ICJ ruled that Preah Vihear was on Cambodian soil, but did not rule on where the common border lies.

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