What about Thailand? Barack Obama caps Asian pivot but Bangkok stands out as missing piece of the puzzle
Two military coups have damaged US relations with Bangkok, a treaty ally and regional powerhouse whose relations with Washington date back more than 180 years
President Barack Obama attended a farewell dinner with Southeast Asian leaders on Wednesday, capping eight years of careful courtship that has created new friends, but left links frayed with America’s oldest regional ally – Thailand.
When Obama looked around the gala dinner table in Vientiane, he would have found a bevy of new partners. His engagement with former Communist foes in Vietnam and now Laos is slowly easing the bloody burden of history, in much the same way as his opening to Cuba.
More striking still was perhaps the presence of Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent much of the last three decades held prisoner by a brutal military junta.
They are expanding relations notably with China and Russia. At face value I don’t see how that is consistent with US interests
Obama’s engagement with Myanmar – a country he has twice visited – has buttressed a political transformation, helping convince the generals to share power with Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government.
“Just sitting back and criticising countries has a limit in terms of what it can achieve,” said Ben Rhodes, an Obama aide who has worked closely on the US’ policy to Myanmar.
Where George W. Bush routinely skipped meetings with Southeast Asian heads of state, Obama – perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who spent a chunk of his childhood in Indonesia – has been a regular visitor. But the trips have not all been plain sailing, as Obama was reminded this week when he was labelled a “son of a whore” by firebrand Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte. Yet experts say it is Thailand that represents the starkest failure to leverage US diplomatic power in the region.
Two military coups in quick succession have damaged relations with Bangkok, a treaty ally and regional powerhouse whose relations with Washington date back more than 180 years.