PM eager to turn page with Cambodia
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday her visit to Cambodia would open new ties between the two countries after sour relations during the previous government's term.
"We will try to ask for help and sympathy from the Cambodian leaders for the two of them; but we have nothing [with which] to bargain for their release," Yingluck told reporters before leaving for Phnom Penh on the one-day visit.
The two activists were arrested in December last year and charged with espionage after their inspection of a disputed border area near Sa Kaew's Bang Nongchan.
The Cambodian Foreign Ministry said earlier the two activists have the right to ask for a royal pardon only when they have served two-thirds of their jail term. The Cambodian government said it expected Yingluck's visit to lead to significantly improved relations.
"The government led by the Pheu Thai Party in Thailand has the same goal as the Royal Government of Cambodia - that we hate war, we don't |like to use violence as a means to solve our problems," said Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Cambodian Foreign Ministry. "We love a peaceful solution."
