Yingluck will not discuss energy deal: Surapong
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has no conflict of interest in the energy deal with Cambodia when she visits Siem Reap on Friday to join US-Asean Business Forum at the invitation of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Foreign Minister Surapong Tovic
Yingluck would have a bilateral meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen but the main agenda was cooperation on the road connecting the border and Laos’s Xayaburi dam, over which Cambodia is concerned about the impacts and not the gas deal in the Gulf of Thailand, he said.
Surapong rushed to clarify the visit after allegations by the opposition Democrat Party that Yingluck would be discussing a gas deal in the joint development area in the Gulf of Thailand with her Cambodian counterpart on Friday.
The Democrat’s leader Abhisit Vejjajiva expressed doubts that the US would be interested in a business concession in the area since executives of giant gas Chevron Corporation were also in the forum.
Surapong said US Secretary of State Clinton invited the Thai Prime Minister to deliver her speech at the business forum in Siem Reap. The invitation letter was issued since June 28 and arrived at the foreign ministry a day later, he said.
In fact, the invitation was made in person on June 13 when Surapong met Clinton in Washington during Thai-US Strategic Dialogue. Clinton urged Yingluck to bring her deputy Prime Minister on economic matters as well as the Thai ministers of commerce, communication and transportation.
Yingluck will deliver her speech to the US-Asean Business Forum and the US Chamber of Commerce on Asean connectivity and Thailand’s economic plan after the flood, Surapong said.
“I see no point as to why the opposition is questioning the conflict of interest on the gas deal with Cambodia,” he said.
The minister said Thailand and Cambodia would not be able to resume negotiation on the joint development area in the Gulf of Thailand, which is believed is be rich in petroleum resources, since the legal status of the 2001 memorandum of understanding was in doubt due to the announcement of denunciation made by the Democrats when they were in power.
The Democrat government under Abhisit announced in late 2009 that it was scrapping the 2001 MOU on the maritime deal after a conflict with Phnom Penh over a visit of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. There are, however, doubt whether the denunciation was effective since the then government did not officially inform Phnom Penh of the move.
