Asean summit: splits over China put Thailand’s Prayuth Chan-ocha in the hot seat

Thailand’s junta chief turned elected leader Prayuth Chan-ocha has a new-found legitimacy as he chairs the Asean Summit in Bangkok this weekend

The bloc’s divisions over China’s rise and the sinking of a Philippine vessel in the South China Sea mean he faces a baptism of fire

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Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will chair the Asean Summit in Bangkok. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:30pm, 22 Jun 2019Updated: 5:34pm, 22 Jun 2019

The pressure is on Thailand’s coup leader turned prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to launch the Southeast Asian country back onto the world stage and mediate some especially thorny issues at the Asean Summit in Bangkok this weekend.

The two-day summit will be Prayuth’s first time leading the bloc since he assumed office after the 2014 military coup. Leaders from all 10 member states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, which held the chairmanship last year – will descend on the capital for what Prayuth hopes will be a meeting of “advancing partnerships” and creating a “seamless Asean”.

“Thailand has outlined an ambitious agenda for its Asean chairmanship, including initiatives on sustainability and the digital economy,” said Brian Harding, deputy director and fellow of the Southeast Asia Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is of course heavily focused on this agenda, it’s clear that Prime Minister Prayuth is naturally more focused on domestic politics and staging a summit that marks a full return for Thailand to the international stage.”

Thailand previously hosted the Asean Summit in 2009, when redshirt protesters stormed the conference venue in the resort town of Pattaya to protest against then prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, forcing the summit to be aborted. Today, Thai politics has seemingly calmed with Prayuth’s ascendancy.

China's Premier Li Keqiang (third from right) joins Asean leaders at last year’s summit. This year, China’s influence will continue to be a big issue up for debate. Photo: Reuters

Paul Chambers, an international relations academic at Thailand’s Naresuan University, said Prayuth’s new-found legitimacy would put him in the spotlight on the world stage, as international pressure declines for Thailand to return to democracy.

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