Cambodia and Thailand will attempt to iron out details of a settlement over the long-running Preah Vihear border dispute at a meeting of the Joint Border Committee that officials say will be held next month. 

A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released yesterday said Cambodia’s top border negotiator, Var Kimhong, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of State Long Visalo will meet their Thai counterparts on February 13 and 14.

“The meeting will discuss issues concerning border demarcation and surveying of the remaining border pillars in the areas outside the Preah Vihear temple region,” the statement reads.

Cambodia and Thailand have never fully demarcated their 805kilometre shared border, and the process has stalled since a dispute over the area surrounding the Preah Vihear temple flared when Cambodia  was awarded World Heri­tage recognition for the site in 2008.

Demarcation talks at a meeting of the JBC last April failed to yield any progress on the issue during a low period of Cambodian and Thai relations.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday this would be fifth time the two sides had met at the JBC since hostilities flared in 2008, adding that 25 of the 73 markers demarcating the border had yet to be established.