‘No harm in our rebalancing ties’
THERE is nothing wrong with Thailand rebalancing its foreign policies towards the three superpowers
Panitan was referring to Deputy Prime Ministers Somkid Jatusripitak and Prawit Wongsuwan’s official visit to Russia and Belarus from Tuesday until today to expand cooperation on security, trade and investment. This was the first official visit between Thailand and Russia since a visit by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Thailand last April.
“Even the US adopts rebalancing policies. It is not strange that Thailand also re-balances its foreign policies. But this does not mean we will replace the US with Russia or China. We have overlapping ties with every country,’’ he said.
Panitan said Thailand would have to be careful not to adversely affect military ties with the US, which the country has always given first priority to. He said Thai relations with China over security had been upgraded after the countries agreed on an extradition treaty. “Almost 10 million Chinese visit Thailand, so if we do not have this, we would not be able to deal with related threats,” he explained.
About 1.7 million Russians visit Thailand annually, Panitan said. The reason both Somkid and Prawit had to pay an official visit to Russia together was because of expected talks on currency issues. “There is a need to negotiate because Russia does not want to accept US dollars from bilateral trade,’’ he said.
Aside from formal bilateral dealings, Thailand also has a plan to procure from Russia 10 Mi-17 transport helicopters for a total of Bt3 billion and 100 T-90 A tanks for Bt9 billion. Thailand needs new tanks, Panitan said, because it wants to decommission 100 old tanks.
Somkid and Prawit’s trip to Russia is seen as a precursor to a visit in May by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who was invited by President Vladimir Putin to attend the Asean-Russia Commemorative Summit. During this trip, Thailand and Russia will mark their 120th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2017.
Panitan said Thailand and Russia have had long, but not close ties, because Russia had many restrictions in the past. Russian leaders were not well acquainted with Asean leaders including Thai leaders.
“Unlike the present, where we have good relations, especially economic sectors of both countries enjoy close ties and rising trade and tourism,’’ he said.
Both Thailand and Russia see more opportunities after the world powers like the US and Russia rebalance foreign policies towards Asian regions.
During the 23rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November last year, Prayut told the Russian prime minister he would dispatch his deputies in charge of security and economic affairs to visit Russia to expand bilateral cooperation.
Prayut will then visit Russia with two main objectives, first over security issues and an exchange of intelligence, anti-terrorism and transnational organised crime.
“The concern is expansion of terrorism by IS. We will discuss security issues for Russian tourists. After reviewing the existing MoU, we will sign a new MoU,’’ he said.
The second objective was negotiating an exchange – Russian armaments such as helicopters for disaster relief with Thai agricultural products such as rice and rubber, Panitan said. “Russia needs agricultural products because it is boycotted by the EU and it has potential on energy,” Panitan said. Prawit will also visit Belarus to discuss security matters. “It is a country with great potential in military and armaments,’’ the adviser explained.
