SE Asian states meet to focus on Thai aid
SE Asian states meet to focus on Thai aid
Associated Press, Bangkok
The leaders of four Southeast Asian nations are meeting this week in Myanmar to discuss how Thailand can help its less prosperous neighbors increase trade and improve their tourism, communications and other industries.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, will host the leaders of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia on Wednesday in Bagan, 510 kilometers (315 miles) northwest of the Myanmar capital Yangon.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday that Thailand would discuss ways of helping neighboring countries develop, which in turn would curb the flow of economic migrants into the country and discourage the production of illegal drugs.
"Economics is the main issue that will dominate the discussions," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday before departing Phnom Penh for Myanmar. "All agreements will also be about economic cooperation and development between the four countries."
Preliminary meetings were being held on Monday in Yangon to work out details of a declaration on economic cooperation in such areas as trade, agriculture, industry, tourism, communications and transport, Myanmar and Thai officials said.
However, discussions with Myanmar on easing the crackdown against the country's pro-democracy movement and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are not on the agenda, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said last week.
Suu Kyi was detained in May following a clash between her followers and government supporters.
Myanmar's military government has long been under fire for its poor human rights record and its failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won 1990 elections by a landslide but was prevented from taking power when the junta nullified the result.
Western nations, including the United States, have sought to pressure the junta with economic and political sanctions. Thaksin said Thai aid would help ease political tensions in Myanmar, leading eventually to the restoration of democracy.