Thailand’s top diplomat visits Myanmar border amid clashes, evacuations

Al Jazeera:

Thailand’s foreign minister has visited a border town near Myanmar, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, after days of clashes in which the military regime’s troops were forced into retreat by ethnic minority armed groups and hundreds of residents forced to flee.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara visited the Thai town of Mae Sot that lies across from Myanmar’s Myawaddy, which has been wrested out of the military’s control.

“Thailand wants to see peace and dialogue,” Parnpree told reporters, adding that it was considering alternative trade routes in case of road closures caused by the fighting.

Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said he would review preparations for a further influx of people from Myanmar.

Earlier this week Thailand said it was prepared to accept 100,000 people fleeing from Myanmar. But Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin warned on Thursday that the fighting should not spill into his country’s airspace.

Fighting between Myanmar’s military and ethnic minority armed groups has rocked Myawaddy this week, sending people rushing into Thailand, from where the boom of artillery shells and gunfire could be heard.

The conflict in Myanmar set off by the military’s 2021 coup regularly sends people fleeing across the two countries’ shared 2,400km (1,490-mile) border.