Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi summoned the Thai and Cambodian ambassadors in Beijing on Thursday and urged them to solve their diplomatic crisis calmly, Chinese state media said Friday.
Wang Yi met with the ambassadors separately to express regret at the violence and to advise them to restore diplomatic relations as quickly as possible.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher condemned the “vicious” attacks, a statement said.
“We call on the Cambodian government to take all necessary steps to restore order and to investigate the incidents. Diplomatic facilities are inviolable under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations; it is important that the Cambodian government take all steps necessary to respect this…obligation,” he said.
US Senator Mitch McConnell on Thursday criticized Prime Minister Hun Sen for his Jan 27 public comments in which he called Thai actress Suvanant Kongying “thief star” in response to comments she has denied making about Angkor Wat.
“The exploitation of the rumor…is as reckless as it is irresponsible,” he said in a statement.
McConnell has been a consistent and outspoken critic of Hun Sen and is best known in Phnom Penh as the man who in September called for “regime change” in Cambodia.
“The riots must serve as a wake- up call to complacent diplomats in Phnom Penh,” he said. “As there is no law and order in Cambodia, your embassy could be next.”
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar warned Asean- member nations on Friday that the unrest should serve as a lesson for all to tread warily on national and religious sensitivities, since these issues have the potential to be extremely volatile.
Lim Kit Siang, chairman of Malaysia’s Democratic Action Party, said Asean urgently needs a dispute resolution mechanism to help settle tensions between Asean members and prevent them from flaring into conflicts, Agence France-Presse reported.
“The swift degeneration of relations between Cambodia and Thailand has raised fundamental questions about the international credibility and integrity of Asean,” Lim said.
He said Asean should be at the forefront in trying to reduce tensions between Cambodia and Thailand, but no member country has even expressed concern, making a “mockery of Asean’s raison d’etre to uphold neutrality, peace and stability in the region.”
“All the bonhomie, camaraderie and extravaganza of the 8th Asean summit [in Phnom Penh] two months ago proved both skin deep and short lived when animosities and conflicts among Asean member nations could so easily flare up and go out of control,” he said in a statement.
