By Prashanth Parameswaran
New ambassador charged with improving relations with Washington.
Thailand has charged its new ambassador to the United States Pisan Manawapat to quickly mend strained ties with its ally Washington during his time there.
In an interview with The Bangkok Post which was published following his confirmation earlier this week, Pisan said that his “two urgent tasks” were to improve Thailand’s relationship with the United States as well as to help upgrade Bangkok’s position in the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
U.S.-Thailand relations, already strained following Washington’s suspension of aid and nixing of some exercises and exchanges of after a coup last year, had deteriorated even further when the U.S. top envoy for East Asia Daniel Russel publicly rebuked the ruling junta in a speech at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on January 26.
As The Diplomat reported then, U.S. charge d’affaires Patrick Murphy was summoned to the Thai foreign ministry and a February 2 joint press conference between the United States and Thailand on the scaled down Cobra Gold exercises this year was delayed. Thai prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had also issued some rather colorful statements of his own in response.
Read the full story at The Diplomat