Thread: Govt seeks Obama visit to help mend poor image

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/loca...end-poor-image

Govt seeks Obama visit to help mend poor image

• Published: 4/02/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

WASHINGTON : Thailand is inviting US President Barack Obama to visit as it tries to shed images of last year's political violence.


Obama: Attending East Asia Summit

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva sent a special envoy to Washington this week to convince US policy makers that the kingdom is returning to stability and is committed to shifting its fractious politics from the street to the ballot box.

''Our mission is to tell them that we're back in business,'' Panitan Wattanayagorn, who also serves as the government's acting spokesman, said on Wednesday.

The Obama administration is working to build ties with Southeast Asia, sensing that the dynamic and mostly US-friendly region has been neglected because of Washington's preoccupation with Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Mr Obama has promised to attend the next East Asian Summit, tentatively slated for October on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. He will welcome Asia-Pacific leaders a month later to his native Hawaii for an annual summit.

Mr Panitan said Thailand, which is the oldest ally of the US in Southeast Asia, welcomed the warming US relationship with Indonesia, which the Obama administration sees as an ideal partner in light of its vast, moderate Muslim population and its rapid shift to democracy.

But Mr Panitan said Thailand also sought a stop by Mr Obama.

''We are working hard for that,'' he said. ''A visit would be very good. By that time, we should have a new government in office.''

Mr Panitan hinted the government supported elections early this year, saying it believed it enjoyed a lead in polls owing to an economic rebound.

But last month thousands of red shirt anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Bangkok in their largest demonstration since their protest at Ratchadamnoen Avenue and around Ratchaprasong intersection from March to May last year.

More than 90 people were killed during operations launched by government forces to break up the protests.

The red shirts have asked the International Criminal Court to investigate possible crimes against humanity in the government operation.

Mr Panitan rejected the effort, saying that Thailand was not part of the ICC.

The government is also facing demonstrations this month by the People's Alliance for Democracy and its nationalist allies, who have set up different camps near Government House for what appears a prolonged protest.

An election would be ''important in the sense that we can bring back politics to the parliament, not on the streets'', Mr Panitan said.

He conceded that foreign observers might think Thailand was consumed by domestic issues. But he said the kingdom was committed to an international role and pointed to its recent dispatch of peacekeepers to Darfur, Sudan.

''We try to make sure that domestic turbulences don't spill over and affect our relationship with our friends,'' he said.The US has officially steered clear of taking sides in Thailand. It has focused efforts on building defence and political ties elsewhere in Southeast Asia _ including Indonesia and also former foe Vietnam.

Washington last month also pledged help for the navy of the Philippines, the other treaty ally of the US in Southeast Asia besides Thailand.

Thailand is the oldest US ally in Asia. The kingdom, then known as Siam famously offered elephants to President Abraham Lincoln to fight in the US Civil War.