Thailand, Vietnam hold talks

Thailand, Vietnam hold talks

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam and Thailand, involved in a recent naval clash over fishing rights in the Gulf of Thailand, have made progress on delimiting boundaries in the area and an agreement is within sight, Vietnam says.

Officials held five days of talks this week in Ho Chi Minh City about the two countries' overlapping continental shelves, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Saturday night.

"They noted with satisfaction the progress of the meeting and that at this meeting the two sides' points of view moved much closer than those in previous meetings," VNA said.

"Both delegations were of the view that a final agreement could reasonably be predicted soon," it said.

Clashes over fishing rights are common in the gulf, where the Thai and Vietnamese continental shelves overlap for about 6,000 square kilometers.

Two Vietnamese sailors and a Thai fisherman were killed on May 31 in a clash involving gunboats from both countries when Vietnam seized six Thai trawlers it said were fishing in Vietnamese waters.

Vietnamese authorities have not subsequently indicated whether the Thai boats and fishermen were still held.

The VNA report of the meeting did not mention the clash.