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