Pramudwinai’s meeting with the imprisoned former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in July, the first such foreign official meeting since the 2021 coup, was seen as a move to upstage Indonesia – the current ASEAN chair – which has been working on a “quiet diplomacy” approach in Myanmar.
Thailand also maintains a formidable economic presence in Myanmar. PTT Oil and Retail Business PCL (OR), a subsidiary of PTT, an energy conglomerate in which the Thai government holds a 51 per cent stake, holds a 35 per cent share in Brighter Energy, a petroleum joint venture in Myanmar.
In December 2022, PTT was forced to issue its stance on Myanmar after Norway’s sovereign wealth fund dropped PTT and OR from its equity portfolio in response to the violations of human rights in Myanmar.
In September, Thai opposition MP Kannavee Suebsang appeared to be the lone, and almost inaudible, voice in parliament to press the government to investigate reports of heavily armed Myanmar soldiers crossing the border into Umphang district of Thailand’s Tak province where heavy fighting between the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) and the Karen National Liberation Army has been taking place.
Suebsang said that allowing Myanmar soldiers to cross into Thailand could be interpreted as tacit approval by the Thai military.
The relationship between the Thai military and the Tatmadaw is complex. The Thai military has always argued that a close working relationship with Myanmar matters to national security, especially along the 2,400km border that is rife with ethnic conflicts, drug, human and wildlife trafficking and various other illegal activities.
Since February 2021, there have been reports of Thai authorities pushing back refugees who are fleeing the fighting in Myanmar. However, thousands of refugees have also been offered help by Thai authorities in border areas. The UN Refugee Agency, citing the Thai government’s records, say that from February 2021 to June 2023 more than 40,000 Myanmar people sought temporary safety in Thailand. Some groups reportedly returned to Myanmar once fighting subsided.
Source: CNA
