Thailand's foreign policy is running amok in questionable directions inconsistent with its longstanding and crafty geostrategic balancing. From signing a joint statement to appease Beijing on its "reunification" with Taiwan and criticising a United Nations special rapporteur on his assessment of the Thai-Cambodian border situation, the Anutin Charnvirakul-led government has extended an undue red-carpet treatment to Min Aung Hlaing, who stole Myanmar’s democratic elections in November 2020 by seizing power two months later and eventually whitewashed the robbery with bogus elections last December-January.
Min Aung Hlaing's high-profile visit will now further divide Asean, Southeast Asia's 11-member bloc which has sanctioned Myanmar's military strongman by excluding him from Asean-related summits over the past five years.
Policy-shy and unversed in foreign affairs, Mr Anutin has effectively outsourced foreign policy to Sihasak Phuangketkeow, who has insisted that Thailand will benefit from bilateral talks over the past two days on trade and investment, migrant labour, the environment, energy, border security, drug trafficking, scam networks, and peace building in Myanmar.
