Vietnam-Thailand Maritime Ties in the Headlines With Navy Commander Visit

The interaction highlighted just one factor of a building protection relationship involving the two nations around the world.

Past week, Thailand’s navy main was in Vietnam for a go to. The pre-arranged journey spotlighted some of the ongoing action inside the maritime aspect of the partnership among the two Southeast Asian states, amid broader developments in their domestic and foreign policy.

As I have noted prior to in these pages, while the romantic relationship between Vietnam and Thailand was characterised by animosity for a lot of the Chilly War, it has little by little warmed due to the fact, such as in the defense domain to a certain diploma. The security facet of ties has grown to include aspects such as dialogues, visits, and training. There is an emphasis on the maritime area as well, be it on addressing challenges this kind of as transnational crimes or the regulation of fishermen in maritime boundaries – a specially contentious challenge for not only Vietnam and Thailand but also other Southeast Asian nations.

That has continued on into 2019, even amid broader alterations in the two countries’ domestic and international procedures. In addition to ongoing developments these kinds of as the keeping of this year’s iteration of the new Protection Plan Dialogue, inaugurated past year, there have also been additional aspects of emphasis in 2019, with a single notable a single currently being that Thailand and Vietnam are holding the each year rotating ASEAN chairmanship in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

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This 7 days, the maritime part of the relationship was in the headlines yet again with the stop by of Thailand’s navy chief to Vietnam. Luechai Ruddit, commander of the Royal Thai Navy, was on a pre-organized doing the job check out to Vietnam.

Luechai’s take a look at comprised of a collection of interactions. In conditions of meetings, he met with Vietnamese officers including Deputy Protection Minister Phan Van Giang, who hosted a reception in his honor on June 18 at the headquarters of the Vietnamese defense ministry.

All through that meeting, both of those sides took stock of current maritime collaboration and also talked over other regional and worldwide problems of typical desire. There was also a reference to each and every supporting the other all through their ASEAN chairmanships in 2019 and 2020, including on defense-relevant interactions.

The two nations around the world also mentioned future possibilities and difficulties for their cooperation. On the possibilities side of the ledger, Luechai created reference to joint patrols and education as getting parts for additional progress. And the statement from the Vietnam defense ministry also reported that the two sides mentioned “fishermen-relevant issues” and how they would be settled in a lawful and humane way – an indication of problems that remain in this area regardless of continuing efforts by both equally sides to foster greater ties.

Originally Published Here: Vietnam-Thailand Maritime Ties in the Headlines With Navy Commander Visit