September 22, 2009
BANGKOK (AFP) - Asian leaders will attend a summit in Thailand next month as planned, despite domestic political woes which wrecked an earlier meeting and forced others to be relocated, an official said Monday.
The summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its six dialogue partners China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand takes place in the coastal resort of Hua Hin on October 23-25.
Supporters of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra known as the "Red Shirts" stormed the last summit, held in the beach town of Pattaya in April, forcing some regional leaders to flee the venue in helicopters.
The meeting had been postponed from December and moved out of its original location in Bangkok after rival demonstrators from the anti-Thaksin "Yellow Shirt" movement blockaded the capital's airports.
"All 15 (visiting) leaders can attend," Vitavas Srivihok, the director general of the Thai foreign ministry's ASEAN department, told reporters in Bangkok.
Vitavas said leaders at the summit would look at issues including a feasibility study for free trade cooperation between ASEAN and its regional partners.
Thailand has been mired in political chaos since the military overthrew Thaksin in 2006.
The Red Shirts rallied in Bangkok on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the coup, while the Yellow Shirts clashed with police in a separate protest on the same day at a disputed temple on the Cambodian border.
The Red Shirts have not yet indicated whether they will target the October summit, although they are unlikely to as Hua Hin is the site of one of the main palaces of Thailand's widely revered king.
