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Today, the seasoned American politician will be joined by Thailand’s first female Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at a joint press conference to “underscore US strong alliance with Thailand and its support for Thailand’s recovery efforts following severe flooding.”
It’s quite an honour for Mrs Clinton, or for Thailand???
The 64-year-old secretary of state normally has a joint statement/conference with her counterpart, not the leader of the countries she visits. For example, in July 2009, she and the external relations minister S.M. Krishna heralded an India-US strategic partnership. They made another joint statement after the strategic dialogue was held in July this year.
Mrs Clinton also had a joint statement with her Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim in March last year.
For the debutante premier Yingluck, Clinton will be her first significant foreign guest while she is battling with the Great Flood.
Yingluck’s brother stood side by side with the then US President George Bush on 19 September 2005, not in Thailand, but in the US, delivering a joint statement reinvigorating the old Thai-US partnership.
Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had a joint statement with the UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon in Bangkok in November 2010, a joint statement in New Delhi with his Indian counterpart in April 2011, and with the Philippine president when he visited Thailand in May this year.
On the one hand, Thai people should be consoled and grateful (to Yingluck or to the US remains inconclusive?!) that at an inconvenient time of flooding “big sister” is still visiting us. Yingluck can respond to dissenting voices in the opposition and among elite groups by showing that she has first class international connections.
Also, the presence and strong words of solidarity from the very capable Clinton will hopefully charm the international audience, reassuring them that Thailand is resilient and will soon be bouncing back to where it belongs.
Superficially, we could say that Thailand is keen on receiving external rubber stamps about happening in our own territory.
Over the past five years Thailand has shown its desperate need for the recognition of major powers, economically and politically, as the country moves into an unknown socio-political landscape.
Now is no exception, but for different reasons: we want the foreign dignitaries’ voice to tell the world that “Thailand will be back after the flood, and the key players are behind us.”
Today, the UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon will lend his solidarity to Thailand during his one-day visit here on his way to the 19th ASEAN summit in Bali. Mr Ban will support Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in delivering support for flood relief and post-disaster reconstruction.
Today Prime Minister Yingluck will also listen to big sister Clinton at the Government House joint press conference. “It is in the US national security and political interest to have this government succeed, and we will do what we can to support that going forward.”
Like previous governments, the Yingluck administration has shunned the principles of protocol as long as it serves the purpose of shoring up domestic popularity at a time of crisis or rating heading downhill.
When Abhisit was the leader, he rolled out the red carpet for senior Chinese officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Communist Party. The Democrat government desperately needed Chinese endorsement to pursue normal relations as they were fully aware of the close ties between Thaksin and China.
It was Abhisit who had to visit China three times: the first right after the failed Pattaya Summit, then an official visit, and again to attend the grandeur of the Asian Games in Guangzhou.
It’s the psyche of the Thai leadership: they will sort of “kow tow” to those they feel in deficit with.
Some diplomats have said, “In this critical transition, any powerful dignitaries will be well-received. We badly need to regain the international community’s confidence. A strong message or more is needed to reaffirm our inner and fundamental strength. A minor protocol compromise of the joint press conference and joint statement is therefore not an issue.”
But this has raised some eyebrows as the US has provided, in cash and kind, less flood relief than others, such as Japan and the European Union.
But their voice seems louder.
Just a decade ago, the US was doing next to nothing when the financial crisis hit Thailand and spread into other Asian nations. Now they hope that their goodwill gesture will produce some positive results in a country that has usually been their close ally.
“The US secretary of state is equivalent to a foreign minister and prime minister is lowering her status to stand on the same podium. If they want to deliver a message to the Thai people, let Mrs Clinton do it on her own (or with her less than charming counterpart),” others argue.
By and large, the Pheu Thai party, a lousy transformation of the Thai Rak Thai party, unsurprisingly copied the Thaksin-styled strategy of a megaphone psychological approach to numb the dissenting voices.
After all, both Thailand and the US want to be seen that we never stand apart. Yet, the long-standing project to get President Barack Obama’s official visit since the Abhisit administration, more specifically in light of the September 2006 coup, has never been realized.
But Thailand’s first lady will still use the opportunity at the ASEAN Summit in Bali to hold a bilateral meeting with all key partners including Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (18 November), Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiniko Noda and President Obama (19 November).
There remains a long list of things for the Thai government to do before we can be shining on the global radar. Among the key issues includes settling whether or not we will allow political bickering to continue in a time of disaster management.
Kind of nit picky and picayune analysis in my mind.
Yes, Hilary Clinton is the Secretary of State not the President. But she is no ordinary run-of-the-mill Secretary of State, instead she is way above average in terms of her status, knowledge, ability and her “not highly reported” closeness to Obama, not to speak of having run a “co-presidency” with Bill for 8 years.
And not only will Yingluck be having a major face-to-face meeting with Obama next week in Bali (for which the Hilary visit is prep) but Obama will be inviting Yingluck to visit him in the White House, something Abhisit and Kasit often trolled for but never came close to getting.
Yingluck is a total asset to Thailand in terms of her international image and charisma just as Obama is the same for the U.S. And yet the anti-Obama groups in the U.S. constantly make mundane small talk whenever Obama visits outside the U.S. As it appears the anti-Yingluck group also does for her re: her so far very successful visits to Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Burma.
Only a few short months ago, Thailand was lobbing anti-personnel shells into Cambodia and quarreling with most of its neighbors about irrelevant matters. And represented at major international venues by the totally inept Kasit. Remember the “walkout” from UNESCO, all the International Court nonsense and the Germany/Prince’s airplane fiasco? In the past few months, under the new government led by Yingluck, all of that has disappeared.
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“The US secretary of state is equivalent to a foreign minister and prime minister is lowering her status to stand on the same podium.”
Well – good luck with that, as they say. In terms of phu yai points – not to mention realpolitik – few would agree. Very big sister, indeed…..
More of a factor would seem to be the (never accidental) wording in the State Department’s pre-visit briefing*:
The State Department official said Clinton would offer a “very substantial” aid package to Thailand and hoped to reach out to the public in America’s oldest Asian ally.
“One of the messages that the secretary will bring directly to the Thai people and the government is that we believe it is in the national security and political interest of the United States to have this government succeed,” the official said.
“We will do what we can to support that going forward. There are substantial tensions in Thailand and those tensions will not be resolved after one or even a few elections,” he said.
[my bold emphasis]
That seems to suggest a notably clear message to Thailand’s military – and others.
* http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1165533/1/.html
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Seems SteveCM sure has his eye on the ball by pointing out :
“One of the messages that the secretary will bring directly to the Thai people and the government is that we believe it is in the national security and political interest of the United States to have this government succeed,”
The image I have of Ms Clinton is of a roving Minister for War and surely success for her means Puer Thai having a subservient role to the military with its close US connections.
The interests of Thai democracy are otherwise.
The USA is still technically at war with China as it maintains the division of the country between the liberated mainland and Taiwan and an underlying concern is how the USA is developing its plans for war with China and how allies like Thailand and Super Allies like Australia will fit in.
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Mr. Achara Ashayagachat according to protocol the correct way to address the current American Secretary of State would be:
The Honorable
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State of the United States of America.
A less formal option is provided as:
Dear Madam Secretary
But I have never heard anyone”formally” address a member of the Diplomatic Corps as “Big Sister”.
Sincerely,
Concerned Observer
Perhaps you should peruse a copy of a protocol manual like this so that you will not inadvertently cause a international incident if by chance you offend someone:
http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/p600_60.pdf
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“Only a few months ago, Thailand was lobbing anti personnel shells into Cambodia…” well not just any anti personnel shells.That rotten duo of Abhisit and Prayuth were actually using a specifically banned cluster munition, and which there is no reasonable doubt they knew has a long term cost in civilian casualties,mainly children.On top of that, is the allegation that these cluster bombs were laced with toxic gas.This is even more worrying when you consider at the same time Thailands Royal Army was committing these crimes, tourist’s were dropping dead at the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai from “chlorpyrifos poisoning” at the hotel of a political allie of Thaksin.The connection and links to all this being that Bill and Hillary are financed by Dow CEO Andrew Liveris,who in turn manufactures Chlorpyrifos,and who just happens to be King Bhumibol’s “special advisor” an award that was awarded him in 2007.
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I think Comment 5’s brilliant analysis needs to be added to CRES’s mind map of a year or two back. Just needs Roswell, Lee Harvey Oswald and 9/11 to be slotted in there somewhere and the picture is complete
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u can kid da world,But not ur big sister .
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I forgot to mention the 12 redshirts “poisoned coffee” btw…
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Not as far fetched as you might think “treble”.In any case why on earth would you raise the mind map as defence for the Royal Thai Army and their CIA weapons ? That along with the GT200 proves how mental they are doesn’t it ? – There are more snippets of infomation that might interest you: for instance the former Thaksinite major and hotel owner was replaced with Pannada Disakul as major of Chiang Mai and is the very same man given the task of “cleaning up Chiang Mai” by the royalists according to all reports. -But Pannada as you will also know is no ordinary major,as it was he who was named in court as the person responsible for bringing the Lese Majeste charges against Prachatai.Hardly a democrat then ? And lets face it when Agent Orange and a host of other chemical weapons are the norm and prefered weapons of use by the CIA controlled goverments of Asia and an historic fact,the odds this is just another conspiracy get slimmer and slimmer by the day especially when you consider the obvious cover-up.(ie. cleaning rooms prior to WHO inspection and handing over “poor quality samples” .
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Clarification – Pannada Disakul charged with “cleaning up Chiang Mai” not the previous major
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As an update to what I posted in c2, the following was tweeted by US Ambassador Kristie Kenney on the HC/YS press conference:
Secretary Clinton says we are “proud to stand with Thailand” as you face devastating floods #ClintonBKK
“the United States stands firmly behind the civilian government of Thailand”. SecClinton says at press con w Thai PM Yingluck. #ClintonBKK
Words like “civilian” don’t appear by accident. Seems we’ve moved on from Thai politics just being “spicy”…..
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It appears that the U.S. government/State Dept. has at long last abandoned the ex-Ambassador Boyce policy of Thai generals and royalists first and come down firmly on the side of Thai voters.
Bravo!
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Arthur is jumping to conclusions I fear. Ms Clinton did not call for Prayuth etc to be put on trial for last years killings or others for Tak Bai etc.
The US always pretends to be pro civilian and pro democracy but is really only happy when these coincide with US strategic interests. Ms Clinton has probably satisfied herself that the US (CIA) – Thai alliance is unthreatened by the new government and hence her comments.
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Arthur (c12) – that interpretation certainly seems to fit.
For further insight into US State Dept/Administration thinking, I recommend reading “Background Briefing with Senior Administration Officials” to be found at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/11/177158.htm *
There’s a lot of it (first section about the Philippines), but – as a reward for your persistence – there’s a great “mis-speak” that appears at the start of the Thailand section.
Hint: relates to the title of a political office.*
* h/t to Bangkok Pundit who spotted this.
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Ricky (c13)
I don’t see that Arthur (c12) is “jumping to conclusions”.
“This government” is clear enough and “civilian government” is clear enough. Put it this way – the US Government (yes, for its own reasons) is saying that they like this “boat” the way it is and don’t want to see it “rocked”.
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SteveCM & I agree on the bottom line which implies the US does not want to see another coup. As for some change of heart, I see nothing to support that suggestion.
Reading the whole briefing it is interesting how full it is of nice sounding phrases but I would say reading between the lines one can see things are not so fine.
Take these two excerpts for example. The first, to my mind shows woeful ignorance about the parlous state of our wildlife or “natural resources” and our antiquated railway system:
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Some of the biggest challenges: a huge amount of sediment in all areas, on runways, on roads; problems associated with sanitation; huge numbers of animals that have escaped – dogs, cats, zoos, everything driven. Thailand has very rich natural resources in terms of animals. Many of them have vacated their natural habitat. Enormous challenges in that regard. Public distribution systems have broken down in many places. Thailand has a good train system; much of that is unusable.
& this second quote, which appears to me full of code is quite spine chilling and points to the USA’s over riding concern which is certainly not the well being of the inhabitants be they either natural as in wildlife or introduced as in the voters:
SENIOR DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I’ll make two points about that. One, as the Secretary of State indicated in her speech and her important policy article, as well as when Secretary Panetta was traveling in Asia just two weeks back, they both talked about the importance of forward presence. Secretary Panetta said that we will maintain the kind of military presence that we had in the past; in fact, we might even expand that in certain ways.
The three facets of this presence that we keep in mind and both secretaries have emphasized, number one is operational relevance. Forces aren’t there – forces are there for very specific operational reasons, and that’s what we’re considering first and foremost. Secondly is geographic distribution. If you look at the range of scenarios, from hardcore security threats to humanitarian/natural disaster assistance, that kind of response, these happen throughout the Asia Pacific region, so we’re looking for a more geographical balance in our forces going forward. And the third aspect of this is political (inaudible). You have to understand that all of these countries treasure, as they rightly should treasure their independence, their national sovereignty. We certainly support that. We don’t anticipate needing the kind of force presence we had during the Cold War of a containment strategy (inaudible) we need boots on the ground (inaudible). We’re looking at something that’s much more politically sensitive and also operationally relevant (inaudible).
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Yes Ricky’s right,thing’s are not all fine as they are trying to be made out.There are a lot of undercurrents at play in the post arab spring US foreign policy.The Frank Wisner incident proved that splits about policy are showing at the very top of the US goverment.(CIA’s Wisner being a paid employee of Eygpt) and when he delivered the Mubarak should stay speech,did the US mean it or not.Who’s side are they on in Thailand ? Usually the Royalist right ? But now a quick change of shirts to democracy,forgetting their strategic interests ? hardly.
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It seems to me that the U.S. National Security Council and State Dept. along with Obama and Hilary, have concluded the the era of the King, Prem and the generals is coming to an end in Thailand and that the U.S. “Realpolitik-Strategic” interest lies with the large majority of Thais who have elected the present government and who will in all probability elect many more governments to come.
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You may be right Dieter,lets hope so.But it’s quite obvious that some old “war-horses” incl Prem and his CIA friends in the Palace guard and at FCCT are kicking and screaming at the possibility of their cushy existence coming to an end,just like Frank Wisner did in Egypt.
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Clinton probably won’t make policy on Thailand or SE Asia, but look who is! As far as I can tell from the various Wikileaks cables, all Boyce was interested in when in Thailand (officially, anyway) was army, royalists and getting Thaksin out.
He got a neat job at Boeing and now seems to be one of those driving US policy, along with a bunch of the usual corporate bosses and defence-intelligence types. The military-industrial-financial complex seems alive and well:
FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR RALPH “SKIP” BOYCE
ADDRESSES ASEAN BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT SUMMIT
ON BEHALF OF
CSIS U.S.-ASEAN STRATEGY COMMISSION
NUSA DUA, BALI, INDONESIA, November 18, 2011 – Former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and Thailand and current president of Boeing Southeast Asia, Ralph “Skip” Boyce today spoke at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Bali. Boyce talked about U.S.-ASEAN relations and specific recommendations that he helped to develop as a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) U.S.-ASEAN Strategy Commission.
“What we found is that the United States is deeply engaged in Southeast Asia, but that it can and must do more,” Boyce said. “Our commission called on the United States to adopt a more proactive trade policy. In particular, we called on the administration to articulate the goal of negotiating a U.S.-ASEAN free trade agreement.”
The commission, which was co-chaired by Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, chairman of the C.V. Starr Company, and former U.S. secretary of defense and senator, William S. Cohen, was involved in an extensive review of American interests in Southeast Asia ranging from security and political to trade and investment to social cultural and people to people ties. The high-level American initiative underlined growing recognition that Southeast Asia is vital to U.S. national security and economic interests and seeks to provide inputs for a long term US strategy for the region.
The commission presented its summary recommendations to U.S. President Barack Obama and to the U.S. Congress. Its full report will be published in early December.
“American trade negotiators rightly point out that negotiating a U.S.-ASEAN FTA now would be nearly impossible given U.S. sanctions on Burma/Myanmar and the vastly different levels of development among ASEAN countries,” Boyce said at the ASEAN business forum in Bali. “But setting the FTA as a goal makes economic and geostrategic sense. It underlines long term U.S. commitment to work with ASEAN to get the right conditions when a negotiation would be viable.”
The other members of the commission are:
Mr. Richard Armitage, President, Armitage InternationalтАи
Mr. Manolo Arroyo, President – ASEAN, The Coca-Cola CompanyтАи
Mr. James Blackwell, Executive Vice President, Technology and Services, Chevron
Mr. Christopher “Kit” Bond, Chairman, KitBond Strategies; Partner, Thompson Coburn; former U.S. Sentator
Mr. Ralph “Skip” Boyce, President for Southeast Asia, Boeing CompanyтАи
Mr. George David, Chairman, United Technologies CorporationтАи
Ms. Carla A. Hills, Chair and CEO, Hills and CompanyтАи
Ms. Henrietta Holsman-Fore, Chairman and CEO, Holsman InternationalтАиAdmiral Timothy Keating, former PACOM CommanderтАи
Mr. Timothy Shriver, Chairman and CEO, Special OlympicsтАи|
Mr. Edward Tortorici, Vice Chairman, First Pacific Corporation тАи
Mr. Keith Williams, CEO, Underwriters Laboratories
The commission has a website that includes its recommendations, background and biographical profiles of its key members. For more information, click here http://csis.org/program/us-asean-strategy-commission
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Link to AFP piece on Obama hailing Yingluck’s “inspirational election victory” at joint press conference with Yingluck in Bali. Boyce may still be yakking away but Obama and Hilary have decided to back the elected government of Thailand:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/513387-obama-hails-thai-pms-inspirational-election-win/
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