United States President Barack Obama will land in Bangkok today to firm
up his country's strategic alliance with Thailand, seeking support for a
greater presence and role for Washington in the Asia-Pacific.
Last week, US Secretary of
Defence Leon Panetta signed with Thai Defence Minister Sukampol Suwannathat the
"2012 Joint Vision Statement for the Thai-US Defence Alliance: A 21st Century
Security Partnership" to renew the half-a-century-old alliance established
during the Cold War era.
The international environment has
changed since the end of the Cold War. Thailand obtained the status of a major
non-Nato ally in 2004 to make sure that the US would not be isolated when it
wanted to return to this region.
The new vision addresses a range
of challenges to the existing security arrangements in the region, including
natural and man-made disasters, transnational threats, contribution to global
peacekeeping and maritime security issues.
The vision does not see new
emerging powerhouse China as a threat.
International observers,
diplomats and academics regard Beijing as a challenge to the US in the region
and around the globe. The two countries could have cooperation as well as
conflict, with wide implications for countries in the region.
Obama, since his previous term in
office, has made it clear that he wanted to see a greater US presence in the
Asia-Pacific to have some stake in the dynamic region. The vision for a
21st-century security partnership announced ahead of his arrival has already
secured the US position with Thai support.
The US leader, in talks with
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during the visit, will also explore the economic
dimensions of the partnership.
Yingluck will today announce her
government's intention to join negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership
(TPP), a regional free-trade scheme.
The announcement does not mean
Thailand automatically opens its market or has free access to the TPP's
members, including the US, as widely feared by local civic groups, a minister
said.
Academics and non-government
organisations expressed their grave concern that joining the TPP was equivalent
to becoming an American colony, as the Thai economy would be dominated by the
US.
Foreign Minister Surapong
Towichukchaikul said earlier that joining the TPP was a long process. The
government would only be telling the US that Thailand is willing to join, he
said. The intention would be inserted in a joint statement which Yingluck and
Obama would issue today.
The government will definitely
bring the proposal to join the TPP to Parliament for approval and open it for
public hearings in accordance with Article 190 of the Constitution. Thailand
also needed to negotiate with 11 other parties in the TPP to obtain consensus
from them to join, he said.
Surapong said the government
would handle the matter with care, taking national interest into account.
"I thank many academics for
raising such concerns but the criticism of becoming a US colony is too shallow
and narrow. We should look at the situation realistically," he said.
Vietnam and Malaysia have already
joined the TPP negotiations, in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Bilaterally, Yingluck would also
announce reactivation of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement Joint
Council, a mechanism for trade and investment negotiation.
Another cooperation, which got
less media attention, regards tripartite development that would boost the role
of the US in this region.
Under an agreement approved by
the Cabinet last week, the Thailand International Development Cooperation
Agency and the US Agency for International Development would provide aid to
third countries in Southeast Asia.
Supalak
Ganjanakhundee
Business & Investment Opportunities
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