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Bkk Post-Call for response to Thai



Subject: Bkk Post-Call for response to Thai initiative on border issues

Call for response to Thai initiative on border issues
Feedback needed for basis of discussions

Yuwadee Tunyasiri Achara Ashayagachat

Burma has been urged to respond to Thailand's proposal for a framework of
negotiations on border demarcation before the joint boundary committee
resumes talks next month in Burma.

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai asked his
Burmese counterpart Senior General Than Shwe earlier this week to conclude
the memorandum of understanding (MoU) and terms of reference (ToR) so that
demarcation negotiations could begin late next month.

Mr Surin also said existing mechanisms such as the regional boundary
committee and the joint boundary committee should proceed well in the wake
of exchanges of visits by the Burmese prime minister and the foreign
minister to Thailand - and last week's visit to Burma by the Royal Thai Navy
commander-in-chief.

The 17th regional boundary committee meeting - to resume next week in
Phuket - will seek concrete solutions to recent sea disputes, while the
underlying issue, the demarcation of the 2,402-km borderline, has yet to be
realised, he said.

Foreign Ministry officials have held a meeting of concerned agencies to
prepare Thai positions for the talks.

Vasin Teeravechyan, director-general of the Department of Treaties and Legal
Affairs, said the regional boundary committee meeting, co-chaired by
commanding general of the First Army Area Lt-Gen Taweep Suwanasingha, would
discuss measures to ease and prevent tensions after a series of clashes off
Ranong province last December.

The proposed confidence-building measures include hotline contact, using
national flags on cruises, Burmese officials being stationed at the Thai
Fishery Coordinating Centre in Ranong, and joint patrols, he said.

The joint boundary committee talks, to be co-chaired by deputy foreign
ministers of the two sides, will discuss the underlying boundary demarcation
issues on the basis of the framework and technical details in the MoU and
the ToR, which has yet to be agreed upon by Burma.

The Foreign Ministry last October sent a draft MoU as framework for the
negotiations and the ToR detailing technical aspects of the demarcation

field trips.

Thai ambassador to Rangoon Pensak Chalarak said Burma is likely to reply
within the next month before the fourth JBC resumes in Rangoon.

The talks have been on-and-off for some time.

The biennial regional boundary committee held the previous talks last July
while the annual joint boundary committee was held in Bangkok in August
1997.