Cambodia told not to push border dispute too far to UNSC

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said in a letter to Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong that the issue should not be push to the United Nations Security Council.

"The parties concerns are too quick to resort the matter to the UN Security Council. This would do harm Asean standing and actually make the resolution be more difficult," Yeo said in his letter.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said in Phnom Penh that at the request of Phnom Pneh, the UN Security Council plans to hold an emergency meeting next Monday to discuss measures to help the two countries resolve a military standoff over the Preah Vihear and its vicinity.

The meeting is scheduled after the Cambodian ambassador to New York asked in his letter to the presidents of the U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly for the UN to organise the meeting.

 Hor Namhong earlier wrote to Yeo, who is the current Asean chairman, asking him to activate a contact group to help mediate row with Thailand on the border stand off in the border area near the Preah Vihear.

"The proposal (of contact group) found favour with a number of Foreign Ministers, but there was also a general view that the bilateral process should be allowed to continue, and there is still no consensus for the formation of such a group," Yeo said separately in his statement.