Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Monday welcomed support from the UN Security Council for Asean to mediate in the border dispute with Thailand, though the UN body did not offer the peacekeepers Cambodia had asked for.
Thailand meanwhile declared the Security Council’s stance a victory for its efforts to keep the dispute off the international stage after military clashes turned deadly this month.
Mr Namhong and his Thai counterpart, Kasit Piromya, appeared before the Security Council in New York on Monday morning, trading the same accusations the neighbors have been lobbing at one another since four straight days of fighting broke out Feb 4 around Preah Vihear temple.
Bangkok and Phnom Penh have blamed each other for the violence, which claimed soldiers and civilians on both sides and scarred the 11th-century World Heritage Site.
“The members of the Security Council called on the two sides to display maximum restraint and avoid any action that may aggravate the situation,” Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil, the Security Council’s president, told reporters after the closed-door meeting.
“The members of the Security Council further urged the parties to establish a permanent cease-fire and to implement it fully and resolve the situation peacefully and through effective dialogue.”
A Security Council statement “expressed support” for Asean’s efforts
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