Caretaker Thaksin will go to Kazakhstan

Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will attend an international security conference next week in Kazakhstan, Caretaker Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said on Monday.
The trip, from June 16-17, will be his first overseas after he returned to work after taking a leave for more than a month. "The prime minister would attend the second Conference on Interaction and Confidence Buidling Measures in Asia (CICA) in Kazakhstan," Kantathi said. The trip is aimed at finding measures to build collective trust among countries in the region, Kantathi told reporters after presiding at a seminar on "Thailand and Central Asia. It would be the first time that Thailand attended the central Asian security conference as a member. Leaders from 17 member states including China, India, Iran and Pakistan will also attend. In addition, 10 other countries including Malaysia, Japan, the United States and Australia, will participate as observers. Kantathi said he was confident that CICA, set up in 1993 under an initiative of Kazakhstan, will help improve understanding among member countries, particularly the host country. Thailand, he said, is keen to strengthen relations and cooperation with the oil-rich Central Asian countries which now play more important roles in international community since they broke away from the former Soviet Union more than a decade ago. The Nation
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