Thailand and Cambodia are to hold talks next week in Cambodia to try to defuse an escalating row over joint claims to land adjoining an ancient Hindu temple on their border, government officials confirmed Friday.
Joint talks between the two countries' foreign ministers are scheduled Monday in Siem Reap, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat confirmed.
It remained to be seen who would head the team for Thailand, which is currently without a foreign minister.
"If there is no foreign minister, then Thailand will send an equivalent representative," Tharit said.
Former Thai foreign minister Noppadon Pattama was forced to resign earlier this month over widespread criticism of his handling of the Preah Vihear temple affair, which has since blossomed into a potential military conflict between the two countries.
Preah Vihear, an 11th-century Hindu temple built on a 525-metre- high cliff on the Dongrak mountain range that defines the Thai-Cambodian border, has been the cause of a border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia for decades.
In 1962, the two countries agreed to settle joint claims to the temple at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Cambodia won, but the court stopped short of defining the border in the area.
Thailand claims that a 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land adjoining the temple is still disputed.
The ancient spat got a fresh start earlier this month when UNESCO agreed to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site. The inscription excluded the 4.6 square kilometres of disputed territory, and Thailand protested the listing.
Noppadon, who first backed the Cambodian proposal and then reversed his position, was forced to resign after failing to block the listing of Preah Vihear.
The spat escalated from a diplomatic row to a potential military conflict last week, when three Thais were detained for entering the disputed temple territory.
Although the threesome were quickly released, troops were called in from both sides to protect their border.
While Cambodia first appealed to the Association of South-East Asian Nations and then the UN Security Council to get involved in the border standoff, both bodies have urged the two countries to settle the matter bilaterally.
A bilateral meeting Monday between Cambodian Defence Minister Teah Banh and General Boonsrang Niempradit, supreme commander of the Thai Army, in Sa Kaeo province, Thailand, 270 kilometres east of Bangkok, failed to find a quick fix to the joint claims on the temple's surrounding area.
The temple sits on the border between Si Sa Khet and Phrea Vihear provinces in Thailand and Cambodia, respectively, and is about 400 kilometres north-east of Bangkok.
The border spat has come at a sensitive time politically for both Cambodia and Thailand. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen faces a parliamentary election Sunday, and Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is under mounting pressure to resign, in part over his government's alleged mishandling of the Preah Vihear affair.
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