Thailand's Abhist to adapt ASEAN centered foreign policy

Kavi writes in the Nation that Thailand's new government of PM Abhisit Vejjajiva plans to adapt an ASEAN-centered foreign policy:

Thai diplomacy has also broken two new diplomatic grounds: overall cooperation with the Asean, and Muslim countries. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has set forth succinctly his government's commitment to Asean and its newly enforced charter. As the current Asean chair, Thailand will ensure that the charter is faithfully followed and that the planned Asean Community in 2015 becomes a reality.

Specifically, Thailand will work together with Asean members to promote respect for human rights and eventually transform Asean into a people-centred organisation. Moreover, the Abhisit-led government would raise the grouping's international profile and broaden the scope for cooperation with Asia and the rest of the world under various economic frameworks.

Beefing up the Asean policy represents a huge shift in the country's diplomatic practice over the past three decades. The Kukrit government (1975-1976) was the first to introduce Asean as part of its foreign policy. The next 23 governments included the Asean element in their policy announcements on foreign affairs. However, they did not give prominence to Asean and spell out in concrete terms what Thailand would undertake to do as the present government is doing.

Ending the ongoing violence and conflict in the three southern provinces has now been incorporated into Thai diplomacy as never before seen. Indeed, it is a remarkable step for the Thai government to recognise the international dimension of the insurgent problem despite strong denials from the Thai security apparatus. Thailand is hopeful that closer cooperation with the Muslim countries and Jeddah-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) would not only promote better mutual understanding but also contribute to the effort in searching for acceptable solutions.

Reference to Thailand's Southern insurgency, and awareness of the anger stemming from Thailand's northeast directed toward's the Abhist government reminds us that national unity ought to top the Thai government's agenda. Whether this means stopping an ongoing problem from getting worse, or nipping it in the bud as in the latter case.

Does promoting regional integration serve to mitigate successionist tendancies in the South and the potential for such a movement to re-emerge in the North East? Or does strengthening ASEAN as a regional body provide a more viable alternative to Thai statehood for the potential breakaway regions? Perhaps because most countries in ASEAN have similar successionist concerns (Malaysia vis a vis Sarawak and Sabah, Indonesia in relation to Ache, or the Phillipeans in regards to the south) ASEAN nations would seem to have a shared interest in working together to stem successionist movements. In the case of the European Union, where nations like Spain and Britain face similar concerns, no region has yet to break away from a member state.