Thai backing for informal EU talks

Thai backing for informal EU talks

BANGKOK (DPA): Thailand has proposed an informal meeting between Southeast Asian and European Union ministers at the Asia- Europe Economic Summit (ASEM) in Berlin this month as a means of getting around the Myanmar issue, a news report said on Monday.

Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan, who returned from a European tour on Sunday night, said he had proposed what he called a "corridor meeting" between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after apparently failing to break an EU ban on granting visas to Myanmar government officials to Europe, said The Nation newspaper.

The ban, prompted by the EU's condemnation of Myanmar's poor human rights record, has threatened to scuttle the forthcoming foreign ministers' meeting between ASEAN and the EU scheduled for March 29 in Berlin.