China and Thailand, since the establishment of their diplomatic relations, both countries have developed a mutually benefiting relation. Be it in politics or economy and culture, their trust upon each other is immense. Sino-Thai relations are as good as a family.
The traditional friendly relation between these two countries has quite a long history. As for today’s bilateral relations, there are a lot of twists and turns. Having said that, depending on the booming economic and trade cooperation, the relation between them have achieved remarkable success. Since the time Thaksin Shinawatra came to power, not only did he continued a friendly cooperation with China but supported the development of strategic cooperation with them. During his visit to China, both the countries issued Joint Communique, wherein the leaders of both sides corresponded to consolidate the existing friendship between them and promote bilateral strategic cooperation.
After China signing the China-ASEAN Joint Declaration of Strategic Partnership, Thailand became even more positive in order to promote the Sino-Thai strategic cooperation. However, as a new term of the coordinating country of China-ASEAN relations, Thailand is to face the South China Sea tensions. Well, this is surely a challenge, but an opportunity too. How? If Thailand is able to contribute actively in resolving the tensions of the South China Sea, not only will it further strengthen the mutual trust and cooperation, but will also effectively better the political influence of Thailand.
Getting back to the past decades, China and Thailand have been able to transform the “crisis” to “opportunity” and promoted Sino-Thai relations. Defense links between the both have also expanded. It is under Thaksin, Thailand has again become a purchaser of Chinese military equipment. Thailand has bought anti-tank missiles, armored personnel carriers, offshore patrol vessels, and ammunition.
Even though Sino-Thai relation is going strong, they do have their own hurdles. Environmental damage caused by Chinese activities along the Mekong River is one such example. However, despite such issues, the overall prospects for Sino-Thai relation continue to remain bright. It is probably because of the strategic framework between both.
