Defence minister briefs MPs on Chinese submarine deal

Sutin was explaining the use of the defence budget to the Parliament during the deliberations on the Budget Bill for fiscal 2024. The government has proposed a total budget of 3.48 trillion baht. The 3-day session is scheduled to end today (January 5).

Sutin pointed out that the deal was initiated by the Prayuth administration back in 2017, and has since faced several problems, notably that China was unable to supply an S26T Yuan-class submarine fitted with a German-made diesel engine as per the contract.

As Germany prohibits such engines from being used in Chinese military hardware, Beijing proposed to use a Chinese-made engine for the submarine instead, an offer later rejected by the Royal Thai Navy (RTN).

Instead, the Thai navy proposed to buy a frigate from China in place of the submarine. However, the new frigate project would cost 1 billion baht more than the original submarine procurement so has been shelved.

Sutin added that if Thailand were to back out of the deal now, it could lose the 6 billion-baht already paid to China if it were unable to prove that China violated the contract. This prompted the ministry to seek advice from the Office of the Attorney General.

“China could use the fact that we missed the payment schedule once during Covid-19 to conclude that it is Thailand that broke the contract,” he said.

Suthin also responded to criticisms that the Defence Ministry was being allocated a budget almost 2% or 3.8 billion baht higher than in the previous year, arguing that that this increment was minor compared to the inflation rate.

“The ministry is working to reduce the size of the armed forces, but this will take time if we are not to affect the efficiency and morale of the personnel,” he said. “One of the measures is to offer early retirement programme for high-ranking officials, which should reduce the number of generals from around 700 to 380 by 2027.”

The Defence Minister also reported the progress of the salvage mission of HTMS Sukhothai from the seabed, explaining that mud is now being removed from the wreckage to allow the whole ship to be hoisted to the surface rather than in parts.

He said this process is necessary to determine why the ship sunk, adding that washing off the mud will not destroy any evidence.

The HTMS Sukhothai corvette warship went down on December 18, 2022 about 20 nautical miles off Prachuap Khiri Khan province after high winds and strong waves caused seawater to flow into the warship, flooding the engines.

76 of the ship’s 105 personnel were rescued, 24 bodies were found, and five that were missing were later declared presumed dead.