Thailand: Alliances

Not so sure if Thailand continues being one of the closest ally of the United States in the area. Being from very far of the area it is difficult to know if something is being moved in the country.

Something changed recently?

A lot changed since 2014.
During 2013-2014 protest, US reputation is bad due to they openly support corrupt government.

And then coup happen in mid-2014. US is shocking because their intel never notice any signal.
Moreover, the coup is destroy their plan to use Thailand as front base to containment China.

After that US using soft power to force the junta out. Which made their reputation even worse because the junta working quite well.
The junta's approval rating are over 80% at some period, according to polls.

As of today, US still trying to force junta out because they hope election will bring "bribable" politicians into power again. And they can continue whatever they plan.

For balancing and entering new market, the junta is tightening up relationship with countries outside western world. Especially China and Russia.

To answer your question. Thailand today is far from being US ally.
And China is having closest relationship but I wasn't sure I can call ally.

Thank you very much. Very interesting the local view. You answered very well the question.

The poll is after all a question in relative terms. And sometimes these basical questions are difficult to answer.

This is just the type of info that sometimes is difficult to come to countries in the other side of the world. Here it was noticed that some governments condemned the coup but some times it is difficult to see if it is a rethoric condemn or if there is a real disagreement under the condemn. Local articles about the relation of every country with the overall powers is also welcomed in these topics about countries of the area. If you know something about more countries of your area, also, it would be interesting to read it.

Chinese marines arrive in Thailand for join training

is this an indication of Chinese influence?

George1 wrote:Chinese marines arrive in Thailand for join training

is this an indication of Chinese influence?

For a country that under western influence for decades, I see these training as efforts to balancing out.

Who's Thailand closest ally...I wish I knew it but even though I'm Thai, I'm not sure if we really have someone that we can trust enough to call close ally TBH.


US is definitely no, the growing Anti-US sentiment in Thailand is real just like zepia has stated. There's also some emerging Pro-Russia hype although I can't say for sure how many percentage of Thailand's population support this idea.

I wouldn't say China is our ally either...some people here are wary of China actually, seeing how they intimidate Vietnam and other countries directly bordering the South China Sea (you probably have heard about the territorial dispute over the islands there). China almost practically has territorial disputes with most of its neighbors and we simply don't want that issue to happen to us as well.