Washington wants to use Thai airports to base planes assisting in the ongoing migrant crisis.
Thailand is considering allowing its ally the United States to use its airports as a base for planes assisting in the ongoing migrant crisis in Southeast Asia.
The United States has asked Thailand for permission to use its airports — likely either Phuket or U-Tapao airports — as a temporary base for planes assigned to monitor the movement of thousands of migrants stranded in the sea. According to Thai foreign minister Tanasak Patimapragorn, Thailand is still considering the request and has asked the United States to provide more details about its proposed mission, since Bangkok has “to take national security into consideration.”
Tanasak did not spell out exactly what these national security considerations were. But the issue of basing has at times been a prickly one in U.S.-Thai relations. U-Tapao, a base used during the Vietnam War as well as during relief operations following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and after Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, is a case in point. For example, in June 2012, NASA was forced to cancel a climate study because of Thailand’s failure to grant approval to use U-Tapao Airbase. A hodgepodge of rationales were cited by opponents of the plan in Thailand, including concerns about how China would perceive it, the threat to national sovereignty, and even worries about U.S. espionage activities. Washington had also wanted to use U-Tapao as a center for humanitarian research and rescue operations in the region.
Read the full story at The Diplomat