Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said Sunday that Thailand is willing to help transport international relief supplies for Myanmar.
According to Thai News Agency, Noppadon said he had informed Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej that he might travel to Yangon Tuesday to ask Myanmar authorities to provide wider access to foreign assistance for Myanmar cyclone victims, and to allow foreign experts to enter the country, on behalf of countries wishing to offer humanitarian aid to Myanmar people after the country was hit by Cyclone Nargis last weekend.
As a friend of Myanmar, Thailand does not want to pressure the neighbor country much as Myanmar has made it clear that it would allow only donated necessities or cash to enter the country, said Noppadon.
However, foreign nations wishing to help Myanmar people could leave aids with the Thai government, which will help transport them, he said.
Both ambassadors of the United States and Britain to Thailand had asked the Thai government to help persuade Myanmar leaders to allow foreign aid staff into the country to deliver foreign aid supplies to cyclone-affected people, which Myanmar has rejected.
Gen Surayud Chulanont, Thailand's Privy Councilor and former prime minister, reportedly would fly to Naypyidaw, Myanmar's new capital to present the 2,000 bags of utensils and beddings offered by a foundation under the patronage of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Surayud was also expected to try convincing the Myanmar leaders open wider the door to foreign aid.
Noppadon said foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in Singapore on May 19 and discuss ways to help Myanmar cyclone victims.
On Monday, the first planeload of relief supplies offered by the United States aboard a U.S. Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft will depart from an air base in Rayong province in central Thailand for Yangon, the former Myanmar capital, after it got the permit of Myanmar government to enter the country.
Source:Xinhua
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