By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER-CUM-Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is scheduled to visit Koh Kood island on the upcoming Monday to revive the confidence of local villagers as well as visitors on Thailand’s territorial integrity over the eastern tourist island amidst fake news circulated online, a partisan source said today (Nov. 8).
The Bhumjaithai leader-cum-deputy prime minister/interior minister’s official visit to Koh Kood island off Trat has been planned in the wake of the fake news that the tourist island might possibly be held in part as Cambodian territory in regard to a questionable MoU undersigned in 2001 between Thailand and Cambodia in the time of former Thai prime minister/now de facto Pheu Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra and his former Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen.
Koh Kood tourism-related revenue has reportedly dropped by 30% since the last few months due to the unconfirmed, circulated hearsay of a sustained controversy pertaining to Thailand’s territorial integrity over the island, thus prompting the interior minister to visit and restore the confidence of local villagers and tourists.
Koh Kood island, about 65 kilometres off the mainland capital district of Trat, was officially upgraded as a district of the southeastern seaboard province in 2007.
The Bhumjaithai under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob has apparently remained non-committal to a yet-unresolved, MoU-based controversy over part of Thailand’s maritime boundaries in the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand being contentiously considered as maritime areas of overlapping claims of territorial integrity by both countries whilst the Palang Pracharath has insisted the Pheu Thai-led government unilaterally rescind the questionable bilateral agreement which allegedly puts the Thai side at a disadvantage.
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Top and Front Page: Koh Kood beaches. Photos: Naewna
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