Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said that he asked Myanmar's junta leader to free detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi during his surprise trip to the military-ruled country.
"I will not disclose any details because it's not proper to do so," Thaksin said Thursday of his conversation with Senior General Than Shwe.
"All you need to know is that we conveyed our points of concern as their neighbour and said it (a release) would benefit regional politics," he said.
Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon told AFP he had also expressed his disappointment over the Nobel peace laureate's continued house arrest when he met his counterpart Nyan Win.
"Myanmar said it's considering releasing Aung San Suu Kyi but could not say when," he said.
A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party said he was hopeful that Thaksin's visit, coupled with recent pressure from Washington and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, would lead to the release of the democracy leader.
"They have to make a settlement. This is their only way out. They cannot extend her house arrest many more times," Lwin told AFP in Yangon.
State media in Myanmar have made no mention of the visit and officials have declined to discuss the talks.
Thaksin unexpectedly flew to Myanmar on Wednesday to meet Than Shwe at his new administrative capital in a jungle compound outside the central town of Pyinmana, which no other foreign leader has yet seen.
The rare meeting with the reclusive junta leader caught many by surprise, but Thaksin said he had requested the talks when he met Myanmar intelligence officials in Thailand last month.
Than Shwe only agreed to meet at the last minute, Thai officials said.
Thaksin said he called Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, whose country holds ASEAN's rotating chair, before making the trip.
Arroyo gave him messages to convey on behalf of ASEAN, which held heated debates over Myanmar during a meeting last week, the prime minister said.
At the end of the meeting, the group issued a statement expressing concern over the regime's failure to move toward democracy, although it did not mention Aung San Suu Kyi specifically.
"I brought many concerns from ASEAN as well as from the international community. Thailand is a close neighbor and so we feel that we can talk and inform them about those concerns," Thaksin told reporters.
The suddenness of the trip sparked a swirl of speculation in Thailand that Thaksin might have tried to push either personal or national business interests in its resource-rich neighbor.
But the billionaire prime minister said he no longer had any business interests in Myanmar since his family sold off his telecom empire this year.
One of his companies, now owned by Singapore's state-linked Temasek Holdings, provides Myanmar with satellite coverage for telephone and Internet services.
Thailand is one of Myanmar's biggest trading partners, and has been especially eager to tap the country's energy resources for its own growing economy.
Thailand's largest energy firm PTT said Monday it had joined the race against China and India in a bid for exclusive rights to offshore natural gas reserves in western Myanmar.
Energy minister Viset Choopiban Thursday confirmed that Thaksin had raised the issue of energy cooperation during the meeting.
"Thailand asked about the progress of Myanmar's consideration of the proposal of PTT Exploration and Production for additional petroleum concessions in Myanmar," said Viset.
Thailand already pipes about one billion cubic feet of gas per day from Myanmar's offshore reserves in the southeast in the Andaman Sea.
Thai PM says he asked Myanmar for Suu Kyi's release
Interesting article.
I was wondering why he went there???? Despite the rhetoric, I sincerely don't believe it was to press for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. After all, he dosn't exactly have an unblemished record in this country for political freedom, does he?
He's always been close to the Junta and more likely he's just trying to establish business relations again that will be to his and his family's personal benefit.
Anyway, what on earth does he think he can do that far more powerful western governments can't? Proximity is one thing - influence is another.
I'd be really interested to see what the new capital's like. I heard it was carved out of the jungle at short notice as the ruling elite were concerned about an air strike on Yangon (that was the capital before, wasn't it?). All the government workers were tranferred up there, forcibly, at a moment's notice to find partially constructed homes with no electricity etc.
Reminds me of how good old Pol Pot must have been living in his latter years in Along Veng.
I was wondering why he went there???? Despite the rhetoric, I sincerely don't believe it was to press for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. After all, he dosn't exactly have an unblemished record in this country for political freedom, does he?
He's always been close to the Junta and more likely he's just trying to establish business relations again that will be to his and his family's personal benefit.
Anyway, what on earth does he think he can do that far more powerful western governments can't? Proximity is one thing - influence is another.
I'd be really interested to see what the new capital's like. I heard it was carved out of the jungle at short notice as the ruling elite were concerned about an air strike on Yangon (that was the capital before, wasn't it?). All the government workers were tranferred up there, forcibly, at a moment's notice to find partially constructed homes with no electricity etc.
Reminds me of how good old Pol Pot must have been living in his latter years in Along Veng.