ID :
228767
Mon, 02/20/2012 - 12:02
Auther :

Thailand discusses border issues with Malaysia

BANGKOK, February 20 (TNA) - Thai Defence Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat has planned to discuss border issues with Malaysian authorities. Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol, who is accompanying Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for a one-day official to Malaysia Monday, told journalists that, apart from the border issues, he would also discuss problems in the Thai deep South and expected suggestions from the Malaysian authorities. Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol said that he would not seek the extradition of an Iranian man who is suspected to have involved in a spate of bomb blasts in Bangkok on February 14 and has been detained in neighbouring Malaysia, as Thai police are handling the matter. Asked whether he is concerned over the possibility that terrorism is increasingly affecting Southeast Asia, the Thai defence minister noted that the National Security Council is tasked with the issue and the military will, probably, discuss it later as soldiers are at the operational level. The Thai defence minister admitted that he has been worried over impacts of conflicts between Iran and Israel on Thailand, assessing, however, that Thai authorities' intensified security measures should avert terrorists' attention from Thailand as a possible venue for their attacks. In response to comments by General Panlop Pinmanee, an adviser to the prime minister, that Thailand’s relaxed checks on international visitors to promote the domestic tourism appear to be a loophole for terrorists to build up their weapon stocks in the country, the Thai defence minister acknowledged that the tourism-oriented policy is a double-edged sword and Thai security authorities need to work harder. (TNA)

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