Thailand-Cambodia border meet in doubt over venue row

Thailand on Tuesday rejected a request by Cambodia to hold bilateral talks in a neutral country, leaving a planned meeting to negotiate an end to deadly border clashes in doubt.

- 

The nations' longstanding border conflict reignited this month, shattering an earlier truce, killing more than 40 people and displacing over 900,000 on both sides, officials said.

The clashing neighbours on Monday agreed to negotiate truce terms this week, but Cambodia asked Thailand to hold the talks in a neutral venue, Malaysia's capital.

Thailand's defence ministry, however, said on Tuesday that the bilateral border committee meeting would go ahead in Thailand’s Chanthaburi province from Wednesday as planned.

“We guarantee Chanthaburi is safe. This province is the original plan for hosting the GBC (General Border Committee) even before the fighting started,” Thai defence ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri told reporters.

Surasant said officials from the border committee would meet from Wednesday to Saturday, adding that whether the meeting happened or not depended on Cambodia. A Cambodian government spokesman told reporters he had no updated information on the meeting venue.