Thai PM meets foreign investors in Hong Kong to help restore investor confidence after massive opposition protests; Thai PM also urges Thaksin to return home to face the ‘consequences of his actions’
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  • Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva visited Hong Kong on May 15 and met with foreign investors as well as journalists to discuss possible strategies that will help restore investors’ confidence in the country after the massive street riots witnessed in the previous month1. The opposition Puea Thai party meanwhile was demanding an UN investigation into the army crackdown on anti-government protesters2. PM Vejjajiva on his part urged former PM Thaksin Shinawatra to return home to “accept the consequences of his actions.” He however denied any possibility of Thaksin being granted an amnesty3.

    In Burma, detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was put behind bars on charges regarding a US national’s entry into her residential premises in Rangoon4. The action was widely condemned by world powers and human rights activists.

    Reports meanwhile noted that Indian authorities in the Andaman Island have started deporting Rohingya boat people to Bangladesh. They have been stranded on the island since December 20085.

    Reports noted that Indo-Burma border trade will suffer on account of the decision of the Mizoram government to restrict the import of pig from Burma to prevent the outbreak of swine flu within Indian borders6.

    The first World Ocean Conference (WOC) was inaugurated by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on May 14 in Manado. The conference is being attended by a large number of people from different parts of the world representing the environment, marine and fishery lobbies. The meet is expected to come out with the Manado Ocean Declaration, which will include twenty-one articles on issues of maritime significance7.

    The recent joint petition by Vietnam and Malaysia to the UN Convention on the Law of Sea to set new area boundaries has drawn fierce criticism from China as the petition is seen as challenging Chinese claims over the outer limits of its continental shelf in the South China Sea. Criticizing Vietnamese and Malaysian claims as ‘illegal and invalid’, Beijing has asserted that it has “indisputable sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over South China sea islands and their adjacent waters8.”

    Reports noted that the Taiwan-based state-owned CPC Corp. and China-based Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) were seeking to expand their area of joint oil and gas exploration from the present 15,400 square kilometer long area in the Taiwan Strait to more than 30,000 square kilometres. This would basically include the northern continental areas of the South China Sea9.

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