THAILAND REMAINS A CRUCIAL REGIONAL FRIEND
OF AUSTRALIA
Eric Ellis, Bangkok
August 12, 2003
IT'S OFTEN said that the biggest problem
with Thai-Australian relations is that there is no problem.
Coming at a time when the fragilities of Australia's relations in Asia have been
so easily exposed, that's no bad thing. Right now Canberra needs all the friends
it can get in a backyard it wants to cultivate.
Fortunately for beleaguered Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, it has a
good one in Thailand.
Supavud Saicheua, an admitted "fan" of Australia and director of the
Thai Foreign Ministry's South Pacific affairs desk, said: "Compared with
some of our links elsewhere, our relations with Australia are a tea party."
Moreover, it's a crucial friend given Bangkok's influence in the agenda of the six-member Association of South-East Asian Nations.
Supavud said: "In the normal course of diplomatic events, I couldn't see a Malaysian-style problem developing between Australia and Thailand. There is nothing flawed in the fundamental relationship that would start it.
"The Malaysian dispute is something about personalities, not issues. It's issues that are important to us."
Of all the six ASEAN members, indeed of Asia generally, it is Thailand that seems the most outwardly enthusiastic towards Australia's new foreign policy thrust in Asia.
Whereas some Asian countries welcome the move with cautious caveats, if not barely disguised hostility, Thailand offers no qualification.
That is partly explained by the current Thai Government's "acceptability"to traditional Australian diplomatic benchmarks such as human rights, democracy and questionable regimes.
With the possible exception of The Philippines, Thailand has emerged as ASEAN's only genuine democracy.
There are no obvious human rights issues and apart from Thailand's seemingly sanctioned border trade with Khmer Rouge-held territory, the two essentially see eye to eye on a post-United Nations Cambodia.
From the Thai side, there remains sensitivity to any attention given to its revered royal family, as well as bleatings about the Australian media's"sensationalist" coverage of Thailand's seedier side.
Supavud said: "We have that problem in much of the world's press but Australia seems to concentrate more heavily than most. This is not the true image of Thailand."
The depth of the relationship was underlined recently during a visit by Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Supachai Panichpakdi, who has a close personal relationship with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Peter Cook, through their joint membership of the Cairns Group lobby.
Dr Supachai suggested that Australia might in the foreseeable future be included as part of AFTA, the ASEAN Free Trade Area. Although the idea was almost immediately rejected by Malaysia's Dr Mahathir Mohamad as part of his early response in the "recalcitrant" row, the Supachai proposal still has legs, given Thailand's original sponsorship of the AFTA idea within ASEAN.
Supavud said: "We are very well disposed to Australia and we think Australia is towards us."
Maria Buttery, of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, said the warm feeling in Bangkok about Australians was "very evident" in the business community, despite the seedy reputation some visitors have acquired along Bangkok's Patpong Road red-light district.
The ties are long, particularly in the Thai elite, many of whom have been educated in Australia.
The Crown Prince did military officer training at Canberra's Duntroon.
After brief contact at the recent Seattle summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-Operation forum, which an initially cool Thailand is now warming to, it is hoped Prime Ministers Chuan and Keating will get together for more substantial discussions early in the New Year.
A Keating trip is planned for April to officially open the current symbol of Thai-Australian amity, the much-publicised Friendship Bridge spanning the Mekong to Laos in north-east Thailand.
A reciprocal visit to Australia is also in
the pipeline, perhaps after the next APEC summit in Jakarta.