Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong will continue talks on border issues after the closing of the 18th ASEAN Summit on Sunday.

The two foreign ministers` talks after the summit will cover the term of reference (TOR) which was proposed by Indonesia on the border monitoring team to the disputed areas.

In his press conference on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit here on Sunday, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vujjajiva stressed the need of the two countries to discuss the TOR`s details and the conditions of the Thai government had tabled for the government of Cambodia.

"So, we have agreed that our foreign ministers will stay one more day in Jakarta so that they would be able to discuss the way how to integrate bilateral peace process with or without the facilitation of Indonesia, and the dispatch of the monitoring team to the area to prevent conflict," he said.

According to Abhisit, in his meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen which was facilitated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his capacity of the ASEAN chair, the two sides still have a number of differences.

He said that the dispatch of the border monitoring team from Indonesia, and the location of military posts and forces as part of the border settlement process still has to be discussed in one package.

The Thai foreign minister said that what they were doing was not for gaining points in political term. "The ultimate objective is to achieve a lasting peace so that the peoples of the two countries can co-exist peacefully along the Thai-Cambodian border," he said.

During the press conference, the Thai foreign minister was still firm in his stance that he would sign the TOR only if Cambodia withdrew its troops from the disputed areas.

He said that in its report to the International Court of Justice on the implementation of resolution 1962, Cambodia also asked the international court to grant its request that Thailand also withdrew its troops from the area.

"So, I could not understand why Cambodia could not accept the fact that there was a need for the two sides to discuss the troop withdrawal issue from the sensitive area," he said.(*)
(A014/e002)

Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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