No Cambodian-Thai dispute raised at a meeting with Obama

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer Original report from Phnom Penh 13 November 2009

Cambodia will not bring up a dispute with its neighboring Thailand in the first meeting of Asean leaders with the US President Barack Obama to be held this Sunday in Singapore, a foreign ministry's official said Friday.

“The first reason is that, this is an Asean’s internal affair, and secondly Cambodia wants this first meeting to proceed with a success,” Koy Kuong, a spokesman for Cambodia’s foreign ministry, said.

The statement was made after the Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan expressed his concern during a lecture at Lee Kwan Yew school of public diplomacy in Singapore that current diplomatic row between Cambodia and Thailand would affect the first Asean-US meeting.

Singapore hosts Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) which President Obama is scheduled to join.

Prime Minister Hun Sen will leave for the meeting this weekend.