THE Council of Ministers announced Wednesday that 100 border-demarcation poles would be planted along Cambodia’s shared border with Vietnam this year, as the Kingdom’s top border negotiator engaged in talks with officials in Hanoi.

Var Kimhong, senior minister in charge of border affairs, on Tuesday led a Cambodian delegation to Hanoi in advance of a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers that began Wednesday.

The discussions come as opposition leader Sam Rainsy faces charges of racial incitement and destruction of public property at Svay Rieng provincial court in connection with an October protest during which he joined villagers in uprooting border poles. He is expected to be tried in absentia on January 27.

Government officials have defended the demarcation process, but Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann criticised it on Wednesday, saying the talks were not transparent and could lead to farmers along the border losing land to encroachments. “The people will suffer because of these border posts,” he warned.