Talks between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China to crack down on online scams need detail as the proposal from Beijing was still in an early stage, Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said on Saturday.
The minister acknowledged discussions on the issue but said they were at an early stage.
“Right now, we haven’t gone into detail yet,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency when asked about the issue.
The Thai minister spoke after a bilateral meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohammad Hasan in Langkawi on the eve of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat hosted by Malaysia on Sunday.
Malaysia is the rotating chairman of the grouping this year.
China has offered closer security cooperation with Southeast Asian countries to combat scam syndicates operated by Chinese nationals with several Chinese citizens becoming recent victims. Several scam centers are located in Myanmar and Cambodia near the border with Thailand, and call center gangsters have used the kingdom as a transit route to traffic their victims.
Some Chinese tourists decided to cancel trips to Thailand ahead of the Lunar New Year break due to safety worries. The concerns emerged after actor Wang Xing and Chinese model Yang Zeqi disappeared in separate incidents after entering the kingdom. Both were rescued from scam centers in Myawaddy town, opposite Tak’s Mae Sot district.
Fretting about damage to Thai tourism, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an urgent meeting on Friday and said she would produce a video message in Mandarin to guarantee safety for Chinese visiting the country.
This article first appeared in The Bangkok Post.
