Thai Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Sihasak Visits Myanmar for Talks on Border Security and Cross-Border River Pollution
Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow visited Myanmar on November 12 for meetings with Myanmar's leader Min Aung Hlaing, its vice president and Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe, covering border security, the situation in Myanmar, border trade and cross-border river pollution. Water quality in rivers suspected of contamination from upstream mining was a central Thai concern. Thailand is a Southeast Asian country and Myanmar its western neighbor.
A Thai government spokesperson said at Government House in Bangkok on November 12 that Sihasak had traveled to Myanmar with a delegation from the armed services and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Thailand's Foreign Ministry said the urgent agenda included border security, faster action on river pollution, lowering cross-border trade barriers and developments in Myanmar. Speaking to reporters the previous day, Sihasak said Thailand hopes to encourage Myanmar's re-engagement with ASEAN and would like to see more positive progress, while noting that when and how Myanmar returns ultimately depends on the Myanmar government and all parties.
The suspected source of the pollution lies in Myanmar's Shan State. Thailand's Pollution Control Department confirmed in 2025 that heavy metals and arsenic in northern Thai rivers, including the Mekong, the Kok and the Sai, had reached unsafe levels, with mines in northeastern Shan State the suspected source. The spokesperson said the most workable channel is to engage Myanmar's central government as coordinator, that Thailand will also coordinate with China through the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation framework, and that Bangkok plans to raise the issue under the environmental cooperation agenda at next week's ASEAN summit in the Philippines.
The spokesperson added that during the Chinese premier's official visit to Thailand starting November 13, Thailand and China are to sign nine memorandums of understanding, one of them to build an environmental toxin testing laboratory with Mae Fah Luang University to address water pollution in Chiang Rai Province and the north.
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(Source: Central News Agency)
Source: Central News Agency
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：泰国副总理兼外交部长西哈萨在曼谷一场会议上发言（资料图）。CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本图已裁为 16:9。 / Photo: Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow speaking at a conference in Bangkok (file photo). CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped to 16:9.
