Myanmar minister to visit Thailand amid tension<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Agencies): Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung is due
\nto pay an official visit to Thailand next month to try to iron
\nout diplomatic strains, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
\nSathirathai said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The visit comes amid deteriorating relations between the two
\ncountries following a series of clashes on their 2,400 km (1,490
\nmile) border.<\/p>\n
Thailand's foreign ministry on Monday summoned Myanmar's
\nambassador to Bangkok, Myo Myint, to protest against an incident
\nin which mortar shells fired from Myanmar struck a royal
\nagricultural project in northern Thailand on May 22.<\/p>\n
It was the third protest lodged by Bangkok in two weeks.
\nThailand has also complained about articles in Myanmar newspapers
\nwhich it says insulted the Thai monarchy.<\/p>\n
Myanmar has also accused the Thai media of fanning
\nnationalistic flames. The New Light of Myanmar paper said on
\nTuesday that the Thai media \"has been carrying out a vicious
\ncampaign to denigrate Myanmar\".<\/p>\n
Surakiart told reporters his Myanmar counterpart had accepted
\nan invitation to visit and would arrive in Bangkok some time
\nduring the third week of June.<\/p>\n
Relations between the neighbors -- enemies for centuries --
\nhave deteriorated since the election in January of Thai Prime
\nMinister Thaksin Shinawatra, who pledged to \"wage war\" against
\ndrugs which Thailand says are mainly coming from Myanmar.<\/p>\n
Thailand sent reinforcements to its northern border with
\nMyanmar after recent fighting between Thai troops and a pro-
\nMyanmar government ethnic militia group, the United Wa State Army
\n(UWSA), which is accused by Bangkok of being a major producer and
\nsupplier of methamphetamine stimulants and heroin.<\/p>\n
Myanmar says Thailand is supporting ethnic minority Shan
\nrebels, who it says are the region's main drugs producers.<\/p>\n
Surakiart said he would meet with the Myanmar ambassador later
\non Tuesday to explain the sensitivity of Thais to slights of the
\nmonarchy.<\/p>\n
Surakiart said he would also encourage Defense Minister
\nChavalit Yongchaiyudh to visit Myanmar to improve military ties
\nwith the military-ruled government.<\/p>\n
Chavalit says he has close personal ties with many of
\nMyanmar's ruling generals.<\/p>\n
In Yangon, the foreign ministry has officially protested to
\nThailand about \"malicious articles\" on Myanmar in Thai
\nnewspapers, firing the latest salvo in a dispute that has plunged
\nrelations to their lowest levels in years.<\/p>\n
The ministry summoned Thailand's top diplomat in Myanmar,
\nRaden Suwannakorn, on Monday and told him that the articles could
\nadversely affect bilateral relations, the official New Light of
\nMyanmar newspaper said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Myanmar-Thai relations, strained since February after border
\nskirmishes, have deteriorated with an escalating war of words and
\ncontinuing border fights.<\/p>\n
The dispute is principally over Thai allegations that
\nMyanmar's military regime allows an ethnic Wa army, which has
\nreached a cease-fire with the junta, to produce illegal drugs at
\nthe border and smuggle it into Thailand. Myanmar denies this and
\naccuses Thailand of supporting anti-Yangon rebel groups.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the Thai government handed an \"aide memoire,\" or a
\nprotest note, to Myanmar's ambassador in Bangkok, objecting to
\nthe firing of mortar shells from Myanmar territory that landed
\nnear a royal agricultural project in northern Thailand on May 22.<\/p>\n
\"Such an unprovoked attack on royal premises ... was an
\nextremely serious incident,\" the protest note said, and urged
\nMyanmar to take \"speedy actions to remedy the situations.<\/p>\n
Apparently retaliating against the Thai move, the Myanmar
\n\"aide memoire\" took exception to two articles published May 18
\nand May 20 in Thai newspapers.<\/p>\n
\"The Thai media has been carrying out a vicious campaign to
\ndenigrate Myanmar and it has been found that the malicious
\nattacks have reached new heights,\" the New Light of Myanmar said.<\/p>",
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