Indonesia leads ASEAN in Thai-Cambodia row

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

The Jakarta Post

As chair of ASEAN, Indonesia is set to roll out tough diplomacy with member states on border issues between Cambodia and Thailand at an informal ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting today in Jakarta.

The meeting, a followup to a meeting at UN headquarters last week, is expected to result in Cambodia and Thailand’s commitments, among others, to adhering to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC).

“There are at least three issues we wish to focus on,” ASEAN chairman and Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

“One is how do we reiterate, or how do we solidify the commitment by the two countries to renounce the use of force, to comply with the provisions of TAC with respect to non-use of force, which has been a commitment by ASEAN members all these years. We wish to be able to establish this tomorrow.”

He said both Cambodia and Thailand remained committed to solving their problems by peaceful means.

Foreign ministers from Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam will not attend the Jakarta meeting, he said.

As skirmishes on the Thailand-Cambodia border erupt, Marty said the Jakarta meeting was expected to bring stability to the existing cease-fire.

“[The cease-fire] has been an on-and-off affair. I’ve had discussions with both sides since [the] New York [meeting] on ways and means to make the situation more stable and on the possibility of involving a third party in certain modalities,” he said, citing communication or observers’ capacity on the ground as examples.

“Communication modality is the bare minimum. [For example] you don’t have anyone on the ground, but if something happens, they will give us a call and say, ‘something is going on. Can you please sort it out, find out what’s going on’,” Marty said.

“I don’t think we will get there in tomorrow’s meeting, but it would be ideal if we had some commitments by the two sides that they are ready to strengthen the cease-fire by engaging third parties in some kind of capacity.”

He added that a third party would not be necessary if the two countries could solve the problems bilaterally. “I’m more interested in the results.”

Marty added that it was important for ASEAN in the Jakarta meeting to emphasize the importance of creating conditions conducive for political negotiations but underlined that “it’s not a substitute for political negotiation itself”.

Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo confirmed his attendance, expressing support for Indonesia’s efforts.

“We look forward to a constructive and fruitful meeting in Jakarta that can help pave the way for the dispute to be resolved amicably in the broader interests of ASEAN,” he said in a statement.