Thai-Cambodian GBC Meeting Expected To Be Held This Month

BANGKOK, December 1 (TNA) - The Thai Defence Ministry has informed the Cambodian Defence Ministry that it has been prepared for the next Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) meeting later this month. Thai Defence Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapa told journalists Thursday that he has ordered General Nipat Thonglek, Director of his ministry’s Policy and Planning Office, to coordinate with the Cambodian side that the Thai Defence Ministry is now ready for the next Thai-Cambodian GBC meeting, which should be held this month. General Yuthasak said that Thailand's framework of talks to be raised with the Cambodian side at the next GBC meeting, which were earlier discussed and endorsed by agencies concerned, has already been forwarded to him, and that officials from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also accompany him at the upcoming Thai-Cambodian GBC meeting. According to the Thai defence minister, the delayed next Thai-Cambodian GBC meeting will have no impacts on ruling of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ), as requested by Phnom Penh for an interpretation of its 1962 verdict on the ownership of the Preah Vihear Temple, because discussions at the next GBC meeting will involve actions to comply with the World Court's injunction pending its final decision on the Cambodian petition. The ICJ ordered Thailand and Cambodia last July to both withdraw their troops from an unsettled border area around the Preah Vihear Temple pending its final decision. The ICJ ruled in favour of Cambodia in 1962, although the entrance of the 11th century Hindu temple is on the Thai soil. Regarding the realignment of both Thai and Cambodian border security officers as ordered by the ICJ, the Thai defence minister acknowledged that the two countries would initially deploy not less than 400 border patrol police officers to the border area, with more provincial police officers to be probably deployed later if considered necessary. (TNA)