By Prashanth Parameswaran
A Japanese scholar sees more continuity than change in Bangkok’s foreign policy.
Thailand is not shifting its foreign policy dramatically towards embracing China at the expense of the United States, a leading Japanese scholar said Wednesday.
Growing estrangement between the United States and Thailand following a bloodless coup in May 2014, coupled with Bangkok’s decisions to initially award a submarine deal to China and hand over 109 Uighurs to Beijing, have led to concerns that the country’s generals are moving too close to China (See: “Is China’s Submarine Deal With Thailand Now in Peril?”).
But Nobuhiro Aizawa, an associate professor at Kyushu University and a former researcher at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), told an audience at a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that he did not see any serious shift towards China in post-coup Thai foreign policy.
“In terms of foreign policy, I would rather see more similarities,” Aizawa said at an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
If, for instance, one were to compare the travel schedules of ousted former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Thailand’s current leader Prayuth Chan-o-cha, Aizawa argued, there would be a consistent pattern of visiting Thailand’s neighbors as well as China and Japan.
“The mix is totally the same,” Aizawa said.
Read the full story at The Diplomat