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Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives brought a delegation to pay homage to Heng Samrin, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia and exchanged views with Mr Chiang Wun, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs International cooperation Information and Mass Communication at the National Assembly Building of the National Assembly of Cambodia as follows:
-Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives as the head of the expedition of Thai's side said that the Thai-Cambodian relationship has very close cultural and geographic roots. In the past, Thailand placed the importance of Cambodia as a very close neighbor and this commission chose to visit Cambodia as the first country by mentioning the development of Cambodia after a long political war under the leadership of Heng Samrin, King Jiaxim and King Hun Sen that it was a fast development and created the stability for the country a lot. While Somdej Heng Samrin, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia praised the Thai lawmakers for being able to maintain the peace of the country regardless of the political change. Later, he met with Mr. Chiang Wun, the Chairman of the commission foreign Affairs of the Cambodian National Council, Mr. Xiang Woon, he said that it was a good opportunity for Cambodia and Thailand for furthering cooperation between each other in other areas, such as, in Thai-Cambodian border health, International academic cooperation includes planning to establish an ASEAN educational institution at the leadership level in Political, administrative and economic in both the public and private sectors. Finally, he mentioned the cooperation in promoting tourism and investment to prepare for the ASEAN Economic Community of both countries in 2015 including the Single Market and Single Production Base and the cooperation between Thai and Cambodian private sector businessmen, etc.
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives brought a delegation to pay a visit to Deputy Minister of Commerce of Cambodia and discussing and exchanging opinions on the following matters:
-Thailand and Cambodia have cooperation in trade and investment, especially in agricultural products and rice trade between each other. Recently, there was the problem of low price products and the volume of agricultural trade between Thailand and Cambodia still have many problems and obstacles despite the signing of Contract farming and they will have to find further solutions.
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the House of Representatives brought a delegation to pay homage to Mr. Sompong Sanguanban, Ambassador of Thailand to Phnom Penh in order to listen to the lectures. The summary is as follows:
The Issue of Preah Vihear Temple Case
Preah Vihear Temple dispute affects the overall picture of Thai-Cambodian trade economy. After the conflict between the Thai military and Cambodia, the trade value of Thailand has declined 30 percent consecutively for two years. Cambodia mainly turned to consume the products from China and Vietnam, although they accept the quality of Thai products more. However, some media groups in Cambodia have stirred up nationalism. This caused the hatred against Thai people among Cambodian people. This affected Thai products produced in Thai factories located in Cambodia and the trade on the border. Also, there were the problems between Thailand and Cambodia regarding law enforcement of Thailand that affected the agricultural products in Cambodia which could not be exported to Thailand. While the Cambodian government has responded by enforcing hygiene measures, which are Non-Tariff Barriers, against the imports from Thailand.
The issue of preparing the case of Cambodia asks the International Court of Justice. (International Court of Justice: ICJ) Interpret Judgment on Preah Vihear Case, 1962
The Cambodian has changed the person in charge for the Preah Vihear Temple case from Mr Hornam Hong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs to Mr. Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Prime Minister's Office which is an expert in this matter and elevated the issue to an urgent policy of the country. Cambodia is a diplomatic offensive and elevates the issue to the international level by trying to play the role in the international arena starting from the withdrawal of the military according to a temporary order of the International Court of Justice and setting up the framework for the media to comply with the work of the International Court of Justice by accepting the judgment of the upcoming court as the following observations:
- In the general election held in July 2013, Cambodia won't bring the issue of Nationalism like the previous elections because the opposition parties were not as strong as they should have been.
- Cambodia has confidence in the evidence and believes that the trial result of the Preah Vihear trial will be beneficial to them.
- Conflict in the case of the Preah Vihear dispute created the anti-Thai feelings for Cambodian people widely by publishing and running the campaign to awaken nationalism broadly. While in 2006, the conflict merely occurred in the small groups when the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh was burned down.
Thailand didn't have a clear strategic plan for the Preah Vihear dispute yet from the policy of the country leadership, army leader and the operation as well as to prevent the judgment expanding to the political outcome. Also, Thai military potential was more ready than Cambodia. However, the fighting brought the loss of both Thailand and Cambodia as the following observations:
- Integration of information and educating people must have a unity among all stakeholders.
- Presentation of relevant issues of various media that affects the misperception should be presented carefully.
- In the case of the Preah Vihear dispute, the relationship between Thailand and Cambodia has to be rebuilt.
- No Man's Land concept cannot be used in solving the problem of an area of 4.6 square kilometers because it is the strategic area which has a symbolic significance and significant benefits toward a large number of people who have possessed it.
The issue of illegal logging on the Thai-Cambodian border
Regarding problems of illegal logging on the Thai-Cambodian border, Thai officials shot down Cambodians who had invaded and cut down the Rosewood trees illegally in the Thai area. Since 2009, there has been a process of smuggling rosewood trees in Thailand with 1,400 cases. There were 20 clashes and in 2012 there were about 400 cases of arresting Cambodians from 6 clashes. The cause of the collision was because the Cambodians who had illegally cut down those trees had been armed with deadly weapons. When Thai patrol officers detected them, they fired at them. Even though Thai patrol officers have never fired at them first but they need to protect themselves. After the collision, the officers found the evidence, such as rosewoods, saws and wood cutting equipment. They also found weapons of war including arcas and hand grenades on the scene several times. However, Thai authorities have continually discussed solving the problems by collecting information, coordinating with relevant departments, setting the measures to prevent and solve problems together for efficiency. Sompong Sanguanban, Thai Ambassador to Phnom Penh met with Mr. Long Visalo, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cambodia's international cooperation to discuss the above issues and to confirm the fact that the Thai side must protect himself from being shot at which is a right act according to international law and offered the serious discussion between the relevant authorities of the two countries on this issue in order to solve problems at the meeting of Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation between Thailand and Cambodia in which Thailand will host the meeting between 21–22 May 2012 . The Minister of Foreign Affairs of both countries will be the co-chair and it is expected that Thailand will raise the issue of illegal logging in order to find solutions in a concrete way together.
Views and Suggestions from the Study Visit
1. Reducing tensions and hatred of Cambodians by easing Cambodian agricultural products to be able to trade more smoothly
2. Allowing the visit to Cambodian inmates in Thai in accordance with international human rights principles.
3. Protecting Cambodian workers and workers from ASEAN countries that come to work in Thailand legally under the law.
4. The Foreign Affairs Commission cooperates with the Thai Border Affairs Commission, the House of Representatives including other relevant commissions travel to study and meet with people in border areas of the two countries to acknowledge the issues related to Preah Vihear Temple dispute before the International Court of Justice will make the judgment
Keywords Cambodian queries, border, economy, Cambodian labor, Preah Vihear temple, illegal logging
Pillars Politics and security, economy, society and culture
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