Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has played down talk of a territorial conflict between Thailand and Cambodia and urged all sides to exercise restraint.
Mr Phumtham, who is also defence minister, was responding on Tuesday to a video that surfaced recently of the latest minor dust-up on the frontier.
Reportedly filmed last Thursday, the video shows a number of Thai soldiers having a heated discussion with their Cambodian counterparts after the latter were found to have built a structure in an area considered a no man’s land. The site in dispute is near Ta Phraya district in Sa Kaeo province of Thailand, located opposite Banteay Meanchey in Cambodia.
Maj Gen Winthai Suvaree, a Royal Thai Army spokesman, said on Monday that soldiers from the Ta Phraya Taskforce had told the Cambodians to remove the structure and submitted a written statement “protesting” against their actions.
Mr Phumtham said that negotiations were ongoing between Thailand and Cambodia, and both relied on different demarcation lines.
“We see negotiations as a peaceful approach. For problematic areas, communication and restraint are the best way forward, rather than blowing up the issue,” he said.
“We don’t want to see war or violence. We want the negotiations to continue and the governments of both countries to keep communicating.”
Asked whether the Cambodian actions were provocative, Mr Phumtham said that was not his view, adding that all Thailand wants to do is protect its sovereignty. He urged all sides to exercise restraint to avoid losses.
“In every dispute, we can submit a letter to protest and step up communications via all channels to reach a settlement. However, any conflict issues are ready to be dropped on the negotiating table to avoid escalation,” he said.
Border disputes between Cambodia and Thailand are not uncommon, but news of such incidents often touches off heated online debates featuring inflammatory nationalistic language.
A recent example involved a group of Cambodian women who were heard singing a nationalist song at Prasat Ta Muean Thom, an ancient Khmer temple near the Thai-Cambodian border in Surin, on Feb 13.
They were briefly confronted by Thai soldiers before cooler heads prevailed. But the site was closed to visitors for three weeks to allow the fuss to blow over.
