Maryam Khormaei of Mehr News International Service asked Krerkpan Roekchamnong, the Director-General of the Department of South Asian, Middle East and African Affairs in Thai Foreign Ministry, about Thailand's foreign policy in the Middle East and sought the Thai government's opinion on the deteriorating situations in Syria and Yemen as well as the way to tackle terrorism.
Roekchamnong believes that Thailand and the Middle Eastern countries can complement and cooperate with each other on food and energy security. He also warns the international community that it might lose sight of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in both Syria and Yemen while turning too much attention to the fight and conflict.
What are the factors affecting Thailand's foreign policy in the Middle East?
Thailand attaches great importance to our ties with countries in the Middle East. Currently, there are 13 Thai diplomatic missions in the region. Thailand not only seeks to build strategic partnerships with the Middle East countries bilaterally, but also seeks to strengthen our ties within the region like Persian Gulf Cooperation Council and through various international fora, notably the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), NAM and G77.
The Middle East lies in a strategic location connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe, which makes it one of the world's premier power house in terms of trade — a potential market of more than 380 million people; energy — one of the largest known oil and natural gas deposits; and a transport corridor.
Thailand’s policy towards the Middle East has been focused on energy, trade, investment, tourism, technical cooperation including cultural exchanges and people-to-people contact. Let me give you some prominent examples. On trade cooperation, Thailand as the world’s leading food producer and exporter including halal food and the Middle East as the world’s leading oil and gas producer and exporter, both can complement and cooperate with each other on food and energy security. In terms of tourism, Thailand is one of the most popular destinations to the Middle East’s tourists. Last year, Thailand welcomed around 675,000 tourists from the Middle East, of which more than half come for medical check-up and treatment. Therefore, we can take this opportunity to enhance more people-to-people contact. As for the technical cooperation, we have been working together every year in designing and providing training courses and study visits to the Middle East countries in the field of agriculture, fishery development, and tourism promotion which are areas of mutual interest.
How serious is the threat of terrorism in Thailand?
Terrorism is our shared concern. Thailand joins the international community in strongly condemning these acts of violence and remains committed to cooperating closely with the international community in the global fight against all forms of terrorism. Just like any other open economies, Thailand unavoidably faces threats from terrorist and transnational criminal groups but our authorities are always on full alert to safeguard our security and to protect our citizens and foreign nationals. Thailand believes that to effectively stem terrorism, it is important to tackle at its root causes of terrorism, which include poverty, social marginalization, lack of access to resources which lead to a sense of injustice and resentment. Promoting human security in all areas through education, sustainable and inclusive development is therefore crucial to immunize young people from radicalization resulting in sustainable stability. Thailand has adopted a model to achieve sustainable development and security based on His Majesty the King’s Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP). This will help prevent radicalization from taking roots in our society.
How does Thailand look at the current situations in the Middle East including the political upheavals of Syria and Yemen?
Thailand has been closely following the situations in the Middle East. We call for all parties to seek peaceful political solution and exercise their utmost restraint and refrain from use of violence. While much of the world’s attention turns to the fight and conflict, the international community might lose sight of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in both Syria and Yemen. Thailand, therefore, is deeply concerned about the ongoing humanitarian crises. Thailand stands ready to work with all parties concerned on humanitarian relief. On our part we have made financial contributions to assist Syria’s neighboring countries for providing shelters for Syrian refugees. Recently, Thailand has just approved 100,000 US dollars of financial contribution each to assist the Governments of Jordan and Lebanon on Syrian refugees in their countries. Furthermore, Thailand has also provided a contribution of 100,000 US dollars to the Yemen Red Crescent Society to help relieve the severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Krerkpan Roekchamnong is Director-General of the Department of South Asian, Middle East and African Affairs in Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.
Interview: Maryam Khormaei
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