Diplomats expelled in tit-for-tat

CAMBODIA and Thailand expelled senior diplomats from their respective embassies on Thursday, the same day that fugitive Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra told an audience in Phnom Penh that Thailand’s current leadership is guilty of “false patriotism”.

“We declared the first secretary of the Thai embassy as persona non grata,” Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said.
“We just declared that, and then Thailand reciprocated, meaning our first secretary to the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok will come back, too.”

Asked to explain the Cambodian government’s decision, Koy Kuong said only that the Thai first secretary “performed his duty contrary to his position”.

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