Report: No word of breakthrough from Thai-Cambodian border talks, military standoff to ease

BANGKOK, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Monday's day-long talk between Thailand and Cambodia on the disputed border around the Preah Vihear Temple, has produced no breakthrough by now, though two sides agreed to ease military stand-off along the border, reports here said.

The Nation news website quoted Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong, who represented his country in the second round of bilateral talks on the border dispute, as saying that the two sides agreed to "adjust" the military deployment along the border, which has been strengthened in the past two weeks.

They agreed that both sides should exercise utmost restraint and seek further peaceful solution to solve the problem, according to Hor Nam Nong, without further elaboration. Both sides also supported de-mining and land demarcation in the disputed border area, the website said.

The military adjustment would not affect territorial sovereignty and has no implication to future border demarcation, the report said.

Hor Nam Nong had been engaged in a marathon meeting with Thai counterpart Tej Bunnag, who was just sworn in on Sunday, at a hotel in Cambodia's Siem Reap province on Monday.

The meeting lasted for some 12 hours. The atmosphere was reported to be tense, and Tej Bunnag went to consult with Thai delegation at the lunch time after the morning session. Both delegations had to postpone their flights, pending the negotiation.

Monday's talks was a follow-up to the first-round bilateral meeting which earlier took place in Thailand's central border province Sa Kaew, chaired by Thai Supreme Commander Gen Boonsang Niempradit and Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh.

The talks ended without any solution except for a mutual understanding about military restraint.

Monday's meeting was also the first task, and a hard start for Thailand's newly-appointed Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag.

Tej, a veteran diplomat, was appointed as the head of Thailand's Foreign Affairs after his predecessor Noppadon Pattama resigned earlier this month over the dispute concerning a long disputed 4.6-sq-kilometer area claimed by both countries, which is adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple on the Thai-Cambodian border.

The resignation came after a Constitutional Court ruling held that Noppadon's signing a Thai-Cambodian Joint Communique to endorse Thailand's support for Cambodia's bid to list the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site was in breach of the Constitution.

The temple was listed as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)earlier this month.

The issue has arouse a wave of nationalist sentiment in the country. And the two countries has since been locked in a military standoff on the border between Kantharalak district, Si Sa Ket province in Thailand's northeast, and Cambodia's Preah Vihear province where the 11th century Khmer-style Hindu temple Preah Vihear is located.