Promise and Peril in the U.S.-Thailand Alliance

***U.S. Ambassador Robert F. Godec met with Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin at Pheu Thai Party headquarters, Bangkok, 7 September 2023***

"Srettha Thavisin was formally elected as prime minister on August 22 by Thailand’s parliament, capping off months of political intrigue and horse-trading following the country’s May 14 general elections. Srettha, a real estate tycoon who was named as one of the Pheu Thai Party’s three candidates for the premiership in the run-up to the May elections, has come into office with a tenuous mandate. His 11-party coalition not only includes the conservative, royalist, and military-aligned parties that propped up the former Prayuth Chan-ocha government, but also excludes the pro-democracy Move Forward Party, which won a plurality of seats in the election and previously tried—and failed—to form government with Pheu Thai and six other parties."

Andreyka Natalegawa, NYSEAN member and Associate Fellow, Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic Analysis & International Studies writes of the need for the Biden administration to strike a fine balance—approaching and engaging the Thai government as normal and finding ways to pragmatically cooperate with the ruling coalition while recognizing that the situation is unstable.