Thailand has struggled to find common ground with US since the Vietnam war Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been pressured by US President George W. Bush to get their faltering relationship back on course. Mr Thaksin was originally on a private visit to Washington, but schedule adjustments allowed 45 minutes of closed-door discussions on contentious issues including Iraq, terrorism and Myanmar. Two hours before the leaders met in Washington on Tuesday, Thai police announced that they and their Singaporean counterparts had foiled an alleged plot by Islamic militants to bomb embassies in Bangkok. The arrest of three suspected members of Jemaah Islamiah placated American complaints that Thailand was not doing enough to fight terrorism. The move won instant acclaim. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: 'Thailand has its own problems with terrorism, and they are facing up to them, and that's important. We want to work together with them on it.' Mr Thaksin and Mr Bush also discussed co-operation on infectious diseases, including Sars and HIV/Aids, although neither hinted whether the troublesome issues of the war on Iraq or genetically modified crops were broached. Mr Thaksin refused to support the wars on either Afghanistan or Iraq for fear of outraging the Muslim-majority south of his country. The US is also pressuring Thailand to import genetically modified crops, but Thais do not want to bow to the demands for fear of upsetting European trading partners. The chairperson of the Chulalongkorn University's international relations department, Pranee Thiparat, said yesterday that the Thai government was trying to mend a relationship that the US had seen as declining because of a lack of support for the war in Iraq. 'The initial reaction from the Thai government [on Iraq] served the domestic constituents, but did not follow the US line and serve its interests,' Dr Pranee said. 'At the same time, it's not serving the US interests. Mr Thaksin is going back and forth on this issue and whether we like it or not, the US is one of our best markets.' The differences belie the strong links the nations have previously enjoyed. Charles Keyes, a University of Washington professor of anthropology and international relations, said that the US had provided most of Thailand's internal security budget from the 1950s until 1973, when the US began withdrawing troops from Vietnam. Thai policy had then shifted, first through democratic change until 1976, and then by turning to Europe and other countries in the region, such as Japan. But Dr Keyes, author of Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation State? and a 40-year veteran of field work and research on the country, believed relations remained strong despite the occasional fluctuations. He said Thailand's relationship with the US was strong. It had covertly co-operated in the Iraq war by allowing American planes to refuel within the country. The fact that the US embassy in Bangkok was the biggest in Asia and second-largest in the world after that in Cairo was another sign, he said. 'Thailand is seen as a stable friend,' Dr Keyes said. 'Of all the countries in Southeast Asia, it probably still remains the closest ally to the US.' A fellow American expert on Thailand, Clark Neher - a retired professor of political science at the Northern Illinois University - described Thailand's foreign policy as being famous for 'bending with the wind'. This had happened with relations towards China after the Vietnam war. He said Thailand was only of peripheral interest to the US. 'There's nothing that is occurring there that is of great importance to the US, in contrast to the days of Vietnam, when Thailand was seen as an anti-communist bastion,' Dr Neher said. 'Communism is no longer an issue.' peter@kammerer.com
