Thai foreign minister says meeting with Suu Kyi 'our own initiative'
Thai foreign minister Don Pramudwinai said on Thursday a recent meeting with Myanmar's jailed former leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi was done out of his "own initiative", stressing it was not part of a meeting set up by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
"But it (meeting Myanmar's jailed leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi) is not an Asean meeting, because this is our own initiative. Why? Because we have a long border with Myanmar, 2,200 (kilometres), and things happen every day, things happen in such a way that hey, we think that we need to find a way to settle or help settle the Myanmar issue. Like Indonesia, you are far away from Myanmar. You don't know what's happening on a daily basis. But we are affected, India is affected, and countries bordering Myanmar are all affected. The transnational crimes are increasing, scamming, transnational crimes related to drugs, weaponry and also human trafficking, those are things happening," he said.
Don said on Wednesday (July 12) he had met with Suu Kyi, the first foreign official to be granted access to the Nobel laureate since her detention by the military two years ago.
Don also caused a stir last month when he invited Asean counterparts to a meeting aimed at re-engaging with Myanmar's military rulers who have been barred from the bloc's high-level meetings over its failure to honour the five-point consensus. Most Asean members shunned that meeting.
The 78-year-old Suu Kyi has been convicted of more than a dozen offences, ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption and breaches of a state secrets law, in trials dismissed around the world as a sham.
Reuters
