Thai FM official to make fence-mending visit to Myanmar ( AFP ) October 4, 2002


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Thai FM official to make fence-mending visit to Myanmar

BANGKOK, Oct 4 (AFP)

Thailand's top foreign ministry official Tej Bunnag is to visit Myanmar next week in a bid to mend relations with its military-ruled government, a ministry official said Friday.

Tej, permanent secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs, is scheduled to meet with Myanmar officials including Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win during Monday's one-day visit, the official said."He will attend a senior officials meeting being held to restore ties between Thailand and Myanmar," he said.

Relations between the neighbouring countries have been strained since May when deadly border clashes led to Myanmar accusing Thailand of assisting rebels fighting its troops.Myanmar unilaterally closed its border with Thailand in the wake of the dispute.

A fence-mending visit to Yangon by Thai foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai in August, followed by a reciprocal visit by his counterpart Win Aung to Bangkok last month, have both failed to resolve the crisis.Despite the two sides saying that relations have improved, there has still been no date set for a reopening of the checkpoints whose closure has choked bilateral trade.

Surakiart said Friday that Tej's visit was in line with plans for a 10-point agreement to resolve the issue and clear misunderstandings which was discussed with Win Aung in Bangkok."As of now 90 percent of the matter is resolved. Only 10 percent, which is mostly concerned with details, will be discussed and I expect some sort of agreement will be reached during the upcoming trip," he told reporters.

Surakiart said he was optimistic that the agreement would prevent future border closures, although he could not say when he expected the current situation to be reversed."There will be some kind of technical agreement coming out of this trip to prevent future problems when the checkpoints are reopened," he said.

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