Thai PM to discuss southern unrest, economic cooperation with Malaysian counterpart

BANGKOK, June 6 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will confer on the subjects of the ongoing violence in Thailand’s deep southern provinces adjacent to Malaysia as well as economic cooperation with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak during his one-day official visit to that country Monday.

Mr. Abhisit, who will become the first foreign government leader to visit Malaysia after his counterpart Mr. Najib took office as prime minister on April 3, will also have an audience with King Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud Al-Muktafi Billah Shah and meet members of the Thai community and students living in Malaysia.

The Thai prime minister, accompanied by high-ranking officials including Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya and Army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda, is expected to discuss bilateral economic cooperation in the wake of the global economic slump, cooperation in education, and ways to solve violence in restive southern Thailand with Mr. Najib.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in an insurgency which re-erupted in January 2004 in Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.

The two neighbours are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Malaysia at present is Thailand’s number one trading partner among the 10-member grouping. (TNA)