12/20/2023 0 Comments United nations voting blocsPresident Joe Biden, who will be skipping the summit in order to attend his granddaughter’s wedding, would compromise the success of the summit. The question of Putin’s presence at the November 18-19 summit had been unclear for some time, and until this confirmation, China’s leader Xi Jinping was the only one among the leaders of the great powers to have confirmed his attendance at the APEC Summit.Īs The Diplomat’s columnist Tita Sanglee wrote in these pages recently, Thai leaders feared that Putin’s absence, and that of U.S. On the same day that the UNGA vote took place, it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had belatedly accepted Thailand’s invitation to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok next month. While an abstention may make at least theoretical sense in terms of Bangkok’s desire to maintain its neutrality and give diplomacy a chance to do its work, it is hard not to decry a more self-interested motive. Indeed, Russian tourist arrivals to Thailand could conceivably grow as young men and their families flee conscription into the Russian army. On the surface, Thailand also has little to lose in its relations with Russia, which is neither a significant economic partner, nor (unlike Vietnam) a crucial source of arms.Ī decent number of Russian tourists have historically visited Thailand – around 1.4 million did so in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic – but this is clearly not enough to shift votes in the UNGA. Unlike, say, India, which has abstained consistently on the various UNGA votes related to the Ukraine war, Bangkok voted in support of UNGA Resolution ES-11/1 on March 2, which condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demanded a full withdrawal of its forces from the country. Just $5 a month.īut the Thai vote remains confounding for a number of reasons. ![]() ![]() Charter and international law” and was opposed to the “unprovoked acquisition of the territory of another State by force.” At the same time, Thailand chose to abstain because the vote is taking place in “an extremely volatile and emotionally charged atmosphere” that minimalizes the “chance for crisis diplomacy to bring about a peaceful and practical negotiated resolution to the conflict.”Įnjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. In a statement published today, Suriya Chindawongse, Thailand’s permanent representative to the U.N., reaffirmed that Thailand “holds sacred the U.N. Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.
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