Thailand and Vietnam still not best friends amid improved ties

Thailand and Vietnam still not best friends amid improved ties

Once enemies, Thailand and Vietnam have for the past two
decades tried to improve ties. Though friendly, relations between
them have been less than cozy, writes Teena Gill for Inter Press
Service.

BANGKOK: Two decades of formal diplomatic ties and ironing out
of numerous political differences has improved ties between
Thailand and Vietnam, but the two Southeast Asian nations are
still not the best of friends.

Enemies throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, it was only in
August 1976, a year after the North Vietnamese Communist victory
over United States forces in South Vietnam, that the two
countries began patching up their differences.

Since then, the Cold War has ended, socialist Vietnam has
adopted a market economy and become a member of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while Thailand is emerging as
one of the largest investor countries in Vietnam.

And in the spirit of improved ties, Thailand last month
officially announced a series of cultural economic events to
celebrate the 20th anniversary of normalization of bilateral
ties. But, as an Asian diplomat in Phnom Penh says, it may be
some time yet before Thailand fully embraces Vietnam as a
friendly neighbor.

This is because ever since Vietnamese troops set foot on
Cambodia in 1979 to oust Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Rouge regime, the
Thais have been paranoid that one day Hanoi might try to make a
similar incursion into their territory.

Even now, every time Thai armed forces conduct joint military
exercises with the U.S. army, one of the scenarios envisaged is
that of Vietnamese troops entering Thailand in 'hot pursuit' of
Khmer Rouge extremists.

Economic competition for resources especially in the Gulf of
Thailand where Vietnamese and Thai fishing fleets often cross
over into each other's territory is another contentious issue
between the two countries.

In May last year a Thai Navy boat, the HMS Klongyai had a gun
battle with three Vietnamese patrol boats which had apprehended
six Thai trawlers in the Gulf of Thailand for alleged
trespassing. Two Vietnamese were killed and another captured in
the incident.

While the withdrawal of Vietnamese forces from Cambodia in
1989 cleared the air considerably, the assumption of power at
around the same time of Thailand's first elected government in
more than a decade helped Thai-Vietnam relations.

Then Prime Minister Chatchai Choonhavan is credited with
having changed Thailand's Cold War foreign policy drastically in
favor of making peace with communist countries in Indochina with
the slogan of converting "battlefields into marketplaces".

Since the early 1990s with the United Nations-sponsored end to
civil war in Cambodia, and Vietnam's shift away from a socialist
to a market economy, Thailand and Vietnam have come closer on the
economic front.

During the first six months of 1996, Thailand emerged as the
fifth largest investors in Vietnam after Taiwan, Singapore, South
Korea and Japan while bilateral trade between the two countries
has grown form 3.5 billion baht in 1991 (US$145 million) to 12.7
billion baht ($530 million) last year.

Thai companies in Vietnam have however acquired a bad
reputation due to the activities of unscrupulous entrepreneurs
looking for fast cash. Several Thai projects -- in fishing and
mineral resources exploration in particular -- are among those
that have had their licenses canceled in recent years by Hanoi
authorities.

Poor understanding of Vietnamese culture by Thai managers has
also led to the collapse of businesses due to poor response from
consumers. Still, some of Thailand's biggest companies like
conglomerates Siam Cement and the Charoen Pokphand group have
managed to establish a foothold and even expanded operations.

Apart from private business ventures, several government
initiatives like the East-West corridor project that link
Thailand and Vietnam by road via Laos are also planned. The route
of the corridor will link Mukhadarn province in Thailand to the
Laotian border town of Savannakhet and Dong Ha in Vietnam
ultimately leading to the port of Danang.

The construction of the corridor, already agreed to by Lao,
Vietnamese and Thai authorities, will help Thailand transport
goods faster and cheaper to export markets in Japan, South Korea
and the U.S. West Coast.

Thailand also been active in helping Vietnam, which joined
ASEAN in July last year, to adjust to new economic and business
practices required by the regional body.

Earlier this year, the Thai finance ministry signed a
cooperation agreement with Vietnam to help Hanoi rework its
customs and tariff procedures to meet ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA) requirements, under which ASEAN nations are expected to
cut tariffs on most goods trade between members to less than five
percent by 2003. However Vietnam has been given until 2006 to
bring its tariff structure in line with the other countries.

The Vietnamese authorities have welcomed such assistance, and
perhaps another decade of stability in the region may finally see
the two countries warmly embrace.

-- IPS