Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Friday that a new foreign minister will be appointed in time for conducting a bilateral meeting with Cambodia on the border dispute on Monday.
Samak said the new foreign minister would be announced Friday night. He declined to elaborate on the new minister.
But Samak said he believed the tension between Thailand and Cambodia would ease off after the foreign ministers of the two countries meet on Monday.
Earlier Friday, Deputy Government Spokesman Natthawut Saikua said the new foreign minister would not be appointed in time for the Monday meeting so Samak would instead dispatch a deputy prime minister to conduct the meeting.
He said the ministerial level meeting on Monday would be the first bilateral meeting over the border dispute and the new foreign minister would be appointed in time for the next meeting.
The spokesman said it would not a breach in diplomatic protocol to send a deputy prime minster to conduct the talk because the Cambodian government itself would become a caretaker government when a general election is held in Cambodia on Sunday.
The dispute over an area of 4.6 square kilometers near Preah Vihear ancient temple heated up following Cambodia's success of listing the temple as a world heritage site.
Both countries claim ownership of the tract and deployed soldiers to confront each other near the disputed borderline.
The Nation
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