Bangkok/Phnom Penh - Thailand and Cambodia announced the recalls of their respective ambassadors Thursday after Phnom Penh angered Bangkok by offering two advisory roles to fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin later accepted both positions on his Twitter site.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said at a press conference in Phnom Penh late Thursday that Ambassador You Ay would leave Thailand in response to the Thai move to recall its envoy.
"When the royal Thai government resumes the mission of their ambassador to Cambodia, then the Cambodian government will decide to send back our ambassador to Bangkok to continue the mission as normal," Sok An said.
"This is a reciprocal action to the decision by Thailand," he said, adding that it would not affect bilateral relations, "especially in relation to the people living along the two borders."
Earlier Thursday, the Thai Foreign Ministry announced it was recalling Ambassador Pasas Pasasbinitchai, a day after the Cambodian government announced Thaksin's honorary appointments on national television.
"This measure was taken to tell the Cambodian government our feelings," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.
"We see the appointment as interference in Thailand's internal affairs," he said.
Earlier, Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan had described Thailand's recall of its ambassador as "an overreaction."
Phay Siphan said the reason for the offer was that the country needed skilled people like Thaksin.
"Mr Thaksin is well-known and very successful in business," Phay Siphan said. "We consider him as a good quality human resource for Cambodia, and we need people from every corner of the globe to build this country."
The Thai former prime minister was offered two positions: one as an economic adviser to the Cambodian government and the other as an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Thaksin, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006 before being ousted in a coup, used his Twitter site Thursday to accept the Cambodian offer.
"I take this as a way of keeping my brain sharp; otherwise, it could become rusty if I don't keep abreast of new ideas and developments," Thaksin wrote.
"I want to work for the Thai people, but I cannot," he said. "They don't even let me carry a Thai passport."
Thailand revoked Thaksin's passport in April after he incited his political followers to raid a hotel where the government was hosting an Asian summit, forcing Abhisit to cancel the event.
Thaksin faces a two-year jail sentence in Thailand for abuse of power for allowing his billionaire wife in 2003 to successfully bid on a prime plot of Bangkok land in a government auction.
He has been living in self-imposed exile since August 2008 but continues to be a thorn in the side of Abhisit's government.
The latest Thaksin-related fracas occurred last month when Hun Sen announced his intention to provide the fugitive politician with a residence in Cambodia and a job as economic adviser two days before Thailand hosted the summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, of which both Cambodia and Thailand are members.
At the summit, Abhisit suggested that Hun Sen had been used as a political pawn by Thaksin, a former telecommunication tycoon who had close dealings with the Cambodian prime minister before entering Thai politics.
Although Thailand has threatened to ask for Thaksin's extradition should he arrive in Cambodia, Phnom Penh has said it would refuse to do so "under any circumstances" because it considered his two-year prison sentence by a Thai court politically motivated.
Thaksin was overthrown in a bloodless coup after he lost the backing of Thailand's Bangkok-based middle class and political elite. He remains popular with the poor because of his populist economic policies.
