Thailand Travel News

Thailand has again confirmed the postponement of next month’s proposed ASEAN summit. This summit already got cancelled due political unrest and demonstrations. This decision was made after it was found that the ASEAN and dialogue country leaders would not be available for the next month ASEAN summit.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said that the postponement was not due to demonstrations carried out by anti-government protestors but due to unavailability of ASEAN Plus six leaders for the summit.

The 10th ASEAN plus 6 summit was initially scheduled to be held in December but got postponed to April after protestors blocked Bangkok’s two airports for 8 days. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva cancelled the ASEAN summit to be held on April 11 after anti government protestors stormed the hotel where the summit was supposed to be held.

Kasit said that some countries have by-elections, some have general elections and other leaders have schedule of foreign visits to be made which is why all the country leaders would not be available for the summit.

The summit was supposed to be held in Phuket which is quite distant from the capital and is more politically inclined to the current government. The summit is likely to be held in October 2009 which is 10 months later than originally planned.

Senior government officials from ASEAN countries will now works towards making sure that all the ASEAN plus 6 leaders would be available to attend the meeting.

Suthep Thaugsuban – Thai deputy Prime Minister in charge of security affairs said that Thailand is fully ready to host the ASEAN summit and other summits in mid-June. He has also agreed to Asian leaders bringing their own armed body guards provided they have the prior agreement of ASEAN.

The final date of the summit has not been confirmed as it must be convenient for the leaders from all 16 countries. The tentative date is 13th and 14th of June at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa.

The Thai government plan to enforce the provisions of the security bill when the ASEAN + 6 summit resumes in Phuket to ensure there is no repeat of fiasco in Pattaya when the red-shirt protestors led demonstration led to cancellation of the summit.

It is reported that red-shirt anti government protestors vowed that no action would be taken from their side to disturb the summit due to be held in Phuket in June. The leader of red-shirts met with the governor of Phuket Wichai Phraisa-ngop and assured him that nothing will be done to spoil the reputation of Phuket and Thailand while the summit is being held.

In addition to the 10 ASEAN countries, leaders from China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand will also attend the summit.

Asian leaders were reassured by the Thailand government that the next ASEAN summit to be held in Phuket next month would not end in chaos as an earlier meeting did in April.

The summit was abruptly cancelled last month after anti-government carried out huge demonstrations at the venue in the coastal city of Pattaya. Abhisit Vejjajiva has said that the summit would be rescheduled in June to continue the dialogue to address the issue of global economic slump and its impact on ASEAN region.

Suthep, the deputy Prime Minister who is in charge of the security has said that the government is taking stringent steps to ensure that the next summit would be held peacefully without any issue. He further added that Ministry of Defence has been assigned the responsibility of guaranteeing the security of the ASEAN leaders and diplomats.

The military would be fully responsible for the security of the ASEAN leaders and Asia-Pacific dialogue partners where as the Police would supplement the efforts of the army.

Representatives of ASEAN countries, India, China, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Japan were invited by the Thailand foreign ministry for consultation over the meeting date and security arrangements.

It’s not that easy to fix the meeting date with various countries being busy to get through their annual budgets.