Thailand said it would resume diplomatic ties with Cambodia from Tuesday, after the Cambodian government announced fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had resigned as Cambodia’s economic advisor.
Thailand and Cambodia recalled their ambassadors from each others’ countries on Nov. 5 last year after Thaksin, a billionaire on the run from a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power, was appointed economic adviser to Cambodianm Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The appointment riled Thailand’s leaders who accuse Thaksin of organising and funding a red-shirted, anti-government protest movement whose street demonstrations in central Bangkok turned deadly over April and May.
“They have announced they do not have any more ties with Thaksin so our condition to hold back a diplomat has ended,” Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told Reuters on Monday.
And added.
“Thailand will send our diplomat back tomorrow. Similarly, Cambodia will also send its diplomat back to Thailand.”
Thaksin lives mainly in self-imposed exile in Dubai but is still immensely popular among Thailand’s rural poor. His supporters held nine weeks of street protests in Bangkok that turned violent over April and May, sparking clashes with troops in which 91 people were killed and nearly 2,000 wounded.
