Key flies into political maelstrom in Thailand 

Source: NZPAJohn Key

Prime Minister John Key will be flying into a political whirlwind when he arrives in Thailand on Friday night for this weekend's East Asia Summit.

Security is intense with more than 18,000 soldiers and police still guarding the seaside resort of Hua Hin with military helicopters patrolling the sky and naval ships off the coast.

This is despite pledges from the anti-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) that its supporters will not disrupt the summit.

The red shirt clad protesters invaded the last summit and forced an embarrassed Thai government to call it off and airlift many leaders out.

However, the UDD is still sending leader Arisman Pongruengrong and supporters to submit a petition to a representative of leaders of the Association of South East Nations (Asean) on Friday night.

They are proposing to do that at the edge of the cordon zone, many miles from Hua Hin.

The zone has been set up under tough security laws which essentially ban protest and impose restraints on movement.

The UDD supports ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who has again returned to the centre of local politics with news that neighbouring Cambodia is willing to let him live there.

Thaksin has been living in Dubai since a court ordered him jailed for fraud, a charge he denies.

Thailand and Cambodia already have a tense relationship and the border is heavily militarised due to border disputes and there is talk of extraditing the former PM if he does return to the region.

The current Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said he will not let the offer of a new home to his political rival by Cambodia taint the 10-member summit under way on Friday.

On his arrival Key will also be told that the Asean leaders are united in their calls for developed nations to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before asking the developing world to cut theirs.

The government is currently watering down an emissions trading scheme, though Key will argue it is still going further than many countries.

After the Asean summit on Friday, Asean leaders begin a weekend of meetings with the leaders of New Zealand China, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Trade is at the top of the agenda with the Asean members reviewing their progress towards an internal free trade zone.

Its six main countries - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - are meant to reach free trade status between themselves by 2010 with poorer and later members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam reaching that point by 2015.

It looks unlikely countries will meet those targets with many calling for a slowdown of the removal of trade barriers especially in sensitive areas such as rice and other crops.

Asean has already signed trade deals with New Zealand, Australia and other countries in the proposed bloc, but it wants to go further still to form a "Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia" known as Cepea.

It is estimated that tariff elimination and the reduction of other trade barriers in Cepea would lift New Zealand's GDP by $500 million or 2%.

East Asia Summit countries currently take 52% of New Zealand's exports worth $28 billion in 2008.