Thailand hopes key meeting will ease border tensions with Cambodia
Officials of both countries started talks on Monday, preparing an agenda for talks between the two defence ministers on Thursday.
Deputy Defence Minister Gen Nattaphon Narkphanit, who will represent Thailand in the absence of a defence minister, said he was hoping the military confrontation along the border would ease up after the much-anticipated meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
Thai negotiators will give priority to protecting the national interest and carefully consider any counter offers from Cambodia, he said.
Thai officials convened in the Malaysian capital on Monday for negotiations with their Cambodian counterparts on the framework for the ministerial level meeting on Thursday.
The Thai team included representatives from the armed forces, police, and the Defence and Foreign ministries, according to the Defence Ministry.
The GBC meeting is aimed at ending the border clashes, which briefly continued even after the two prime ministers agreed to a ceasefire at a meeting in Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative capital, on July 28.
Malaysia stepped in as current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with the United States and China also represented at the one-day meeting.
The two countries have traded a war of words since the truce announcement. The clashes killed 17 Thai civilians and injured 38, damaged or affected the work of 20 main hospitals and 149 smaller health promotion hospitals, according to the Public Health Ministry.
Fifteen Thai soldiers have been killed and scores more injured since the armed conflict began on July 24.
Gen Nattaphon said Thai negotiators will end the preparatory talks on Wednesday and their conclusions will be sent to the National Security Council for approval before he meets with Cambodian Defence Minister Gen Tea Seiha on Thursday.
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