- 1 minute ago
وزیر خارجه تایلند هشدار داد: «نظم بین‌المللی مبتنی بر قواعد در حال فروپاشی است»
تایلند «منطقه‌ای ژئوپولیتیکی امن» است «در جهانی که می‌بینیم نظم بین‌المللی مبتنی بر قواعد در حال فروپاشی است»، معاون نخست‌وزیر و وزیر خارجه تایلند در گفت‌وگویی مفصل در بانکوک به یورونیوز می‌گوید.
لب بیشتر : http://parsi.euronews.com/2026/11/12/the-rules-based-international-order-is-breaking-down-warns-thailands-foreign-minister
مشترک شوید: یورونیوز به یازده زبان دیگر در دسترس شماست
تایلند «منطقه‌ای ژئوپولیتیکی امن» است «در جهانی که می‌بینیم نظم بین‌المللی مبتنی بر قواعد در حال فروپاشی است»، معاون نخست‌وزیر و وزیر خارجه تایلند در گفت‌وگویی مفصل در بانکوک به یورونیوز می‌گوید.
لب بیشتر : http://parsi.euronews.com/2026/11/12/the-rules-based-international-order-is-breaking-down-warns-thailands-foreign-minister
مشترک شوید: یورونیوز به یازده زبان دیگر در دسترس شماست
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NewsTranscript
00:07Hello, I'm Jane Witherspoon and welcome to the World Conversation. In this episode,
00:13we're joined by Sihasa Puan Ked Kiao, the Deputy Prime Minister for Thailand and Minister
00:18of Foreign Affairs. Tan Sihasa, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:23Thailand has spent decades positioning itself as a country that can talk to everybody,
00:30but the world is becoming increasingly fragmented, more divided. Can Thailand really
00:38remain friends with everyone or are there some hard choices to make now?
00:43Oh, definitely. You know, we like to be friends with everyone. And of course, as you said,
00:52under the present circumstances, where we see more geopolitical competition,
01:01geo-economic, geo-technology competition, it's not that easy. And of course, the main contestation
01:09is between the two superpowers, whom are both friends of Thailand.
01:16Yes. Well, we don't take side. And we ask our friends also not to force us to take side. But
01:29sometimes the message is clear, right? But not taking side does not mean being neutral.
01:41Okay.
01:42Because sometimes neutrality does not serve your interest. So we do have to take sides on issues
01:51from time to time. That's unavoidable.
01:54You mentioned there the superpowers. So we're talking China and the US, who are great allies
01:59for Thailand. How do you balance that relationship though? You say you make it about the issues,
02:05not the countries.
02:07Well, the best way of balancing is to, you know, we have to consider what is in our interests,
02:17you know, and what are the principles that we stand for, and what we consider to be what is right.
02:26Yes. And when times come that you have to make a decision, we do have to make a decision. And
02:36maybe
02:36it goes one way, and the other party might not like it. But we hope that, you know, that they
02:45will
02:45respect us for having made that decision, rather than, you know, sitting on the wall, sitting on the
02:51fence.
02:52China is Thailand's biggest trading partner. How can that come into play, that diplomacy,
02:58when it is affecting your economics of the country?
03:01Well, both, if we were talking about China and the United States, both are important to Thailand.
03:10China is a major economic partner. It's our biggest trading partner. Investment from China is growing,
03:20especially in electric vehicles, as you know. The United States also has a lot of investment
03:28in Thailand, you know, and at the same time, the United States is important in terms of the
03:38security role that it plays in maintaining the balance of power. So, you know, for both countries,
03:46both countries are important partners of Thailand. But I think the best way to maintain a balance
03:54is to have, first, maintain strategic autonomy as much as we can.
04:00Yes.
04:00Second, have the freedom of choices. That means, you know, it's not one or the other. We have other
04:09major powers who have interest in the region. India, rising power. Japan, still an economic powerhouse.
04:18Korea, you know, coming up economically. And Australia, which also has strong interest in the
04:27region. So sometimes balancing doesn't mean balancing between the two, right? And we are
04:34trying to engage constructively with all the two superpowers and also the other major powers who
04:42also play a vital role in the region.
04:45You have described ASEAN, which is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
04:51as being at the heart of your country's foreign policy. But the region is facing pressure from
04:58the U.S. and China rivalry. There's the situation in Myanmar, tensions between its own members. Do you
05:04think ASEAN is strong enough to shape events as opposed to being reactive to them here?
05:10Well, you know, I've been in the foreign ministry for 40 years.
05:15Yes.
05:15I've seen, you know, how important ASEAN is to all the member states. We were able to overcome
05:24many critical periods in the past because we had ASEAN during the Cold War, during the conflict in
05:31Cambodia, right? So all of us recognize that we're in this together.
05:37Yes.
05:38Right? Maybe during the good days, you know, when the situation is not like now,
05:44we forgot about that a little bit, right? But I think we realize that now that we're confronted with
05:52many challenges, we have to really pull our strength. And, you know, the concept of ASEAN centrality
06:02is still there. But maybe we have to take it further and enhance that concept, meaning that we have to
06:10raise the level of our regionalism. That's important because if we simply think about our national interest,
06:16it's going to be difficult for us to pull our weight, right? Second, we must be resilient.
06:22Resilient in terms of making sure that we, you know, we can react to situations quickly.
06:29Yes.
06:30You know, we still have this principle consensus takes time, but we have to do things more quickly.
06:34Second, being resilient these days is economically, it's also important.
06:41We are a market of 700 million people. We are integrating, but we're not in, we have not
06:46integrated enough.
06:48You mentioned Cambodia there. What is the situation and how are relations at the moment?
06:53Well, you know, we want to get beyond the conflict between our two countries.
07:00And, you know, two countries living side by side, we need to live together.
07:05Yes.
07:05But live together in a basis of mutual respect, mutual trust, and mutual confidence.
07:12Yes.
07:13And that is the basis for us to develop our relations.
07:17And certainly, we cannot do it on our part. We want to, we hope that the Cambodian would,
07:25you know, join us in this effort. We want to rebuild our relations.
07:30But rebuilding also means that we have to, you know, put a stop to some of the, what we see
07:38as
07:38acts of provocation, especially in the international forums where, you know, Thailand seems to be
07:45targeted all the time on matters that are not related to the issues that we are dealing with.
07:52So we are, you know, ready. And anytime that the Cambodian side is ready, I'm sure we can take our
08:00relationship forward.
08:01You and the Prime Minister have advocated calibrated re-engagement, gradually reintegrating
08:10Myanmar into ASEAN dialogue. Some critics would argue that engaging with Myanmar's
08:17authorities risks legitimizing them. Why do you believe that engagement is the best strategy for
08:26Thailand?
08:27Well, those critics, it's easy to criticize when you're not the neighboring country of Myanmar.
08:35For us, it's not an academic exercise. You know, we deal with the situation in Myanmar every day
08:41for the past five years along our border, right? And they've had election, not a perfect election,
08:48but we believe that they must continue with the peace process and continue having talks with the
08:56opposition ethnic group. So opposition, it's clear that under this policy of recalibrated
09:02engagement, re-engagement, that means we want to bring Myanmar back to ASEAN.
09:07Yeah.
09:07But it takes, it has to be a step-by-step effort and they have to respond positively to our
09:14concern
09:15as well. But a Myanmar that is isolated from ASEAN is also not good in terms of geopolitics.
09:23Right.
09:24And our approach is first, definitely, you know, any neighboring country, you have to deal with
09:30the border issues, border trade, border security, scam, operations, drugs, pollution in the waters,
09:40in the sky. We have to talk with the government in Nepal. But the other track, that means the
09:47situation, we have not abandoned our hope that they will move forward. And we have, you know,
09:54conveyed these messages all along. And, but in the end, it's up to them. It's up to them to make
10:03things work. It's up to them to move forward with peace, you know, with, with dialogue. So ultimately,
10:09it has to be a Myanmar-led, Myanmar-owned process inside the country.
10:16We've talked about neighboring countries and the region here, but looking further afield,
10:22how are you engaging more actively with partners in the EU, the UK, Australia, you know, further
10:31afield as Canada?
10:32You know, we live in a world where we see the rules-based international order breaking down,
10:39the multilateral trading system on which we depended so much also breaking down or not working.
10:48And it's not just us looking at these partners. It's these partners looking at us as well. The
10:55Indo-Pacific is probably where we see much of the opportunities in trade investment. And
11:02ASEAN is one of the pillars of the Indo-Pacific. And so I think there's a strong degree of mutual
11:10desire on both on the part of these countries and on the part of Thailand and ASEAN to enhance our
11:16relations. How can Thailand make sure that it attracts investment from, you know, around the
11:24world so that you're not dependent on just one market? Well, first of all, as I mentioned, we're in a
11:30region that is very dynamic economically. I see 700 million people. But we're not, you know,
11:40we recognize that it's up to us as well to make ourselves attractive for investment. I have to
11:47accept that the past few years, I think we, because of, you know, our politics had not settled down,
11:54we could not push through some of the reforms that are needed. Now, you know, we're doing a lot of
12:01restructuring, reform of the economy, deregulation, and also we're moving towards the new industries.
12:07I think one important consideration that those who are coming to invest, they think of, of course,
12:13the region, the market, and now it's clean energy. Yes.
12:19Everybody talks about clean energy, the new industry, because they want. And so Thailand,
12:24you know, we're very much engaged in trying to develop our sources of clean energy, not just with
12:31Thailand. You know, we were working with Laos on hydropower. And also my prime minister was in
12:39Singapore recently. We talked about another clean energy hub involved in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
12:45So we're trying to also make ourselves attractive to foreign investors.
12:51We're seeing a lot of supply chains becoming increasingly reorganized around the world.
12:58Is Thailand ready to adjust to those as they change?
13:02Definitely. I think everybody talks about supply chains these days are not about cost.
13:09It's about resilience. Yes.
13:11Resilience against all kinds of risks. And I know one thing, and in my recent discussion with
13:19leaders of government, leaders of the private sector, they're looking at the region and looking at
13:27Thailand, because in addition to our economic potential, we're also considered to be a place where
13:36we're a strict geopolitically safe zone right now. And that's why it's essential for us to maintain peace
13:45and stability in the region. And, you know, and I'm sure that many supply chains, this is uppermost in
13:53their consideration when they think about realignment.
13:57With household debt sitting at 60 percent GDP, an aging and also rapidly shrinking workforce,
14:06how does Thailand move forwards and seize this moment to forge a path with economic certainty?
14:13Well, every country has its challenges and these are Thailand's challenges. How do we approach with,
14:22you know, we approach it with a sense of can-do attitude? I think we can resolve some of these
14:29challenges because, you know, right now we've been given an upgrade by all the rating agencies.
14:37Yes.
14:38So we're handling our macro economic situation. And we're mindful that, you know, we need to do some of
14:46the stimulus measures. The impact from the Middle East crisis is still with us.
14:50But at the same time, we're mindful that we cannot go beyond a certain ceiling. And so, and secondly,
14:57we have to try to rely on domestic sources of borrowing as much as possible.
15:04Yeah.
15:05And the other, we're an aging society. We have to ensure that those who are the retirees are not
15:17retiring. They still have means to earn a living. You know, we have programs so that they can upskill or
15:25reskill. And also for the young people, you know, it's also essential that they also develop the skills
15:31that are needed in this stage, this age of digital economy, AI.
15:36What would you like Thailand's global role to look like in five to 10 years from now?
15:44Well, Thailand, I think everybody considers Thailand a nice friendly country.
15:50You still want to be that nice friendly country, welcoming to foreign visitors, you know, having,
15:59you know, all these attractions, Thai food. But at the same time, we cannot be sitting still.
16:06We have to modernize, we have to make sure that our economy remains dynamic. And that requires a
16:15lot of reform and restructuring. We want to be seen as not just a nice country, but also a dynamic
16:23country. But most importantly, we want to be seen as a responsible country. That means not just thinking
16:29of ourselves, thinking of the world, thinking of the international community, how we can contribute
16:37to making the world peaceful, better and safer place.
16:41We talk about global communities and governments coming together. You know,
16:46what do you think is the first priority which people need to address to make the world a better place?
16:54First, let's get the rule-based international system back on track. We need international cooperation
17:01because we face so many challenges. You know, nobody can go it alone. That's the first thing,
17:07to restore multilateralism. Second, of course, there are immediate challenges like climate change.
17:15We don't know what is the next black swan, when another pandemic will happen. But I'll make
17:24concern right now is the threats coming from cyberspace. You know, and these are transnational
17:32crime of all sorts. But our main concern right now is the threat of online scams. And in this region,
17:42we have to admit, is the center. Thank you so much for joining us on
17:45the World Conversation on Euronews today. What a pleasure to meet you. Thank you very much.