Nov 6, 2009, 7:42 GMT
Bangkok/Phnom Penh - Thailand on Friday threatened to revoke an agreement on joint petroleum exploration with Cambodia and close their common border to trade in an escalating diplomatic spat over fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said he would ask a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to approve the revoking of a Thai-Cambodia memorandum of understanding on joint oil and gas exploration in an overlapping continental shelf area that was signed in June 2001 during Thaksin's premiership.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaunsuban, meanwhile, threatened to close the Thai-Cambodian border to trade if Cambodia continued to take an aggressive stance towards the government.
The measures follow Thailand's recall of its ambassador to Cambodia Thursday to protest Phnom Penh's appointment of Thaksin as an honorary economic advisor, a not-so-diplomatic gesture towards the current Thai government which regards the ex-premier as an archenemy.
Cambodia reciprocated by recalling its ambassador who returned to Phnom Penh Friday along with the three other senior diplomats from the embassy.
'The appointment of Police Lieutenant Colonel Thaksin as economic advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia and personal advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen is seen as interference with Thailand's domestic affairs and a failure to respect Thailand's judicial system,' the Thai Foreign Ministry said.
It added that the government would also review all bilateral agreements and cooperation projects with Cambodia, a decision that Cambodia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Koung said was unnecessary.
'I don't think Thailand should do this, [because] the appointment of Excellency Thaksin is the internal affair of Cambodia,' he said. 'Cambodia has no intention to worsen the relationship.'
'The Cambodian government still [wants to] maintain good relations between the two kingdoms,' Koy Koung said. 'It's up to the Thai side. The Thai side sees this in a different way, but cooperation between the two sides should still go on.'
Earlier on Friday Kasit reportedly asked Cambodia to review its decision to appoint Thaksin, saying Phnom Penh needed to choose between personal interests and relations between the two countries.
Koy Koung dismissed that. 'No, the government still holds to the decision of its appointment of Mr Thaksin,' he said.
The move to revoke the memorandum on joint oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Thailand was seen as direct retaliation against Hun Sen, who has trumpeted his personal friendship with Thaksin, a billionaire former telecommunications tycoon with past business dealings in Cambodia.
However, Koy Koung said the move would make little practical difference.
'So far the progress on the boundary issues is already stuck because of the internal procedures of Thailand,' he said. 'It was very, very slow.'
Thaksin was prime minister from 2001 to 2006 before being toppled by a coup. He faces a two-year jail sentence in Thailand for abuse of power for allowing his billionaire wife in 2003 to successfully bid on a prime plot of Bangkok land in a government auction.
Thaksin has been living in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai, since August 2008 but continues to be a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government.
'Mr Thaksin is well-known and very successful in business,' Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said Thursday. 'We consider him as a good quality human resource for Cambodia, and we need people from every corner of the globe to build this country.'
Thaksin has accepted Cambodia's offer, according to a message he posted on his Twitter page on the internet.
Thailand has threatened to ask for Thaksin's extradition should he arrive in Cambodia, but Phnom Penh has said it would refuse to do so 'under any circumstances' as it considers his conviction politically motivated.
Thaksin was overthrown after he lost the backing of Thailand's Bangkok-based middle class and political elite. He remains popular with the poor because of his populist economic policies.
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