Old enmities still weigh on Thai-Burmese relationship... "The recent visits to Burma by Thailand?s foreign minister, Kantathi Suphamongkhon, and the supreme commander of the Thai armed forces, Gen Chaisit Shinawatra, appear to indicate that relations between the two neighbors are back to normal. A question mark had hung over the state of ties between Burma and Thailand following the downfall of prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt last October, a purge that effectively closed the channel of communications between the two countries. Thailand now seems to be intent on reestablishing communications with the generals. Several key issues, such as drug suppression, border demarcation and the identification of Burmese migrants in Thailand, have still to be solved in a permanent settlement between the two countries. Yet the drug issue alone—a national agenda item in Thailand—is sure to remain intractable, given the importance of the narcotics trade to the economic life of the junta?s allied ethnic armed Wa, who provide a buffer between the Burmese army and the Shan, another ethnic community..."