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BANGKOK: Negotiators from Thailand and Cambodia on Tuesday resumed talks aimed at resolving a border stand-off which last year boiled over into a military clash, a Thai official said.
The last meeting of the Joint Boundary Commission in Cambodia's tourist hub Siem Reap ended in November with the two neighbours failing to reach agreement on any of the key points.
Since then, a new government has come to power in Thailand, inheriting the long-standing territorial dispute over the land surrounding Cambodia's ancient Preah Vihear temple, where troops clashed in October, leaving four dead.
"This meeting is expected to further discuss the topics that we failed to reach agreement on at the last meeting, involving the name of the temple, troop deployment and demarcation," a military official told AFP.
Thailand's new Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya last month made his first official visit to Cambodia. At the time, his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong said the two ministers agreed to begin demarcating their disputed border.
Thai and Cambodian officials on the commission agreed in principle last November to reduce the number of troops at the disputed border and to form a border task force, but there has been no concrete progress since then.
Thailand's defence minister is expected to visit Cambodia on Friday to discuss withdrawing troops from territory around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, which sits on Cambodian land just on the border.
The Cambodia-Thailand border has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of civil war in Cambodia.
Tensions between the neighbours flared last July when the cliff-top temple was awarded United Nations World Heritage status, rekindling the long-running disagreement.
- AFP/yt
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