Thailand boosts its international profile

The relative calm currently prevailing on the home front is enabling Thai policymakers to look ahead and position the country to compete with other emerging economies.
At the G-20 Summit in Hangzhou, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is attending for the first time as the G-77 chair – along with Laos PDR as the Asean chair.
As the host, China has made clear this summit should be inclusive because the health of global economies depends on the well-being of all economies, not only the rich ones. As such, Thailand can play a crucial role in linking the developed and developing countries. Since taking up the chair of the G-77, Thailand has been greatly sensitised to major issues confronting the G-77 members.
China has outlined several benchmarks in Hangzhou to further promote economic growth with innovation and better governance. It claims new ideas such as a universal framework for investment and financial innovation would help increase foreign direct investment and facilitate commerce throughout the world if complicated rules and red tape were eradicated.
One area where Thailand can fit nicely is the sustainable development agenda, both in the regional and international context. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030 have now become the focus points of the G-20. Within the region, the Asean Vision 2025 also contains similar elements outlined in the UNSDG’s targets. Asean has already endorsed Thailand as a coordinator between Asean and the UN on sustainable development goals. Further synergy and coordination would strengthen the regional and international implementations of these UNSDGs.
Later this month, Asean foreign ministers will hold a special session back-to-back with their informal ministerial meetings in New York to discuss the SDGs on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Indeed, it is an opportune time as this year marks the beginning for Asean and the UN of their first year in implementing the 2025 vision and the UN 2030.
To prepare for its role, back in June Thailand hosted an “interface meeting” with the UN Economic and Social Cooperation in the Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) and the Asean Secretariat to identify common agendas.
At the Vientiane meeting in July, Asean mandated Thailand to explore the development of priority areas and a road map to promote complementarities between the Asean vision and UNSDGs. In addition, Thailand must also explore how community building and the implementation of SDGs can reinforce members for the peoples’ benefit.
After Hangzhou, Thailand will pursue similar objectives at the 28th and 29th Asean summits in Vientiane this week. The notion that no one should be left behind has now become a mantra in formulating economic and social policies. Granted the rapid demography growth in East Asia, Thailand has been instrumental in pushing for comprehensive action plans to cope with the ageing population in Asean+3 countries (Japan, China and Korea).
A planned joint statement on active ageing in East Asia will show the region’s leaders’ commitment to jointly manage this challenge.
These similar themes will also be echoed in Prayut’s speech at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month. Thailand has learned anew from being the G-77 chair both on issues and policies. The UN speech this year will be fresher with new ideas on implementation of sustainable development and ways to promote inclusiveness. Thailand will reiterate its independent foreign policy and outline its commitments to the UN and beyond.
If time permits in New York, Thailand’s experience in dealing with refugees and illegal migration may be shared with other countries. The US President Barack Obama is hosting a Leaders’ Summit for Global Refugees on September 20 to highlight the urgent need for the international community to come together to provide additional assistance, resettlements and capacity-building for global refugees.
Washington has already invited Prayut to share Thailand’s lessons learned and good practices involving refugees. Bangkok’s positive response would further ameliorate the Thai-US ties stalled since May 2014.
In October, there will be two other high-profile meetings in Bangkok. The first is the Second Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit on October 9-10. Since its establishment in 2002, the 34-nation grouping has been trying to mobilise members to network and implement their ideas and projects. The ACD is aimed at empowering Asian countries, using their rich experience and resources. In Bangkok, Nepal will be admitted as a new member. The ACD summit’s theme is “Diverse Strength, One Asia”.
So far, five of the Asean leaders have confirmed their participation, along with other heads of state from the Middle East and East Asia. Thailand is hopeful the summit will reboot the ACD with new spirit and cooperation. For the first time, the role of the private sector would be to incorporate with the overall ACD plans, especially in the utilisation of abundant Asian capital to strengthen financial infrastructure in the region.
In Bangkok, the ACD leaders will issue a joint statement on “Vision for Asia Cooperation 2030” with aspirations to build a broader Asian Community. The vision will outline programmes in six areas: connectivity; science and technology; human resource development and education; connectivity between food, water, and energy security; cultural and tourism and promotion of sustainable development.
Following hot on the heels of the ACD summit would be the Asean-EU Ministerial Meeting on October 13-14 — also an occasion to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their relationship.
In the beginning, the EU was recalcitrant to meet with Asean foreign ministers in Bangkok, fearing it would be seen as endorsing the Thai military government. Coincidentally, Thailand is currently the coordinator of Asean-EU relations – literally it is an Asean meeting, not Thailand’s.
Of late, the EU has wanted to intensify overall engagement with Asean. Brussels has urged Asean to accord EU a strategic partnership as one of Asean’s oldest dialogue partners, coupling with a future membership in the East Asia Summit. Currently, Asean has seven strategic partners: China, India, Japan, South Korea, the US, New Zealand and Australia.
The remaining 16-month transition period before the scheduled poll next November will continue to see Thailand remaining active in the international arena, fulfilling pledges as a bridge builder among the community of nations through sustainable development strategies.