[BANGKOK] Thailand's Cabinet has approved the first of three planned submarine purchases from China worth US$393 million, a government spokesman said on Monday.
The plan to buy the three Chinese-built submarines worth 36 billion baht (S$1.46 billion) was confirmed in July, signalling warming ties with the regional superpower since relations with the United States cooled after a May 2014 military coup.
The first submarine purchase was approved last week. "The Cabinet approved one submarine purchase on April 18,"spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told Reuters, adding that a budget of 13.5 billion baht has been earmarked for the Yuan Class S26T submarine over a six-year period.
The media were not told about the purchase following a Cabinet meeting last week because it was a matter of national security, he added.
Public criticism and questions have arisen as to whether Thailand really needs new submarines. "In the current situation, where the government cannot successfully solve economic problems, buying expensive submarines is completely unnecessary," Watchara Petchthong, a politician with the Democrat Party, told Reuters.
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