Chinese military 'handshakes'

China Central Television (CCTV) reported that on June 10, the country's Defense Minister Li Changfu met with General Narongphan Jitkaewtae, Commander of the Royal Thai Army, in Beijing.

Accordingly, at the meeting, Minister Li affirmed that China is ready to work with Thailand to "maintain regional stability and ensure long-term security in the region". General Narongphan expressed support for Beijing's "important role" in maintaining regional security and stability, and pledged to continue promoting relations between the two countries and the two militaries.

HTMS Chang landing ship sold by China to Thailand

Huge arms contracts

In recent years, Thailand has purchased many large-value weapons orders from China. At the end of April, Khaosod newspaper quoted Admiral Choengchai Chomchoengpaet, Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Navy, updating information about the Yuan-class submarine (electric-diesel) that Thailand purchased from China. Accordingly, the submarine ordered by Thailand will use Chinese CHD 620 engines instead of engines supplied by Germany. The reason is that Germany refused to supply due to the EU's arms embargo on China. It is expected that after more than 3 years, the submarine will be delivered to Thailand.

In 2017, Thailand ordered the above ship for 395 million USD. After that, Bangkok planned to order 2 more of this type with a total value of 657 million USD. However, the construction of the first ship encountered problems, and due to economic difficulties, Bangkok also suspended the purchase of 2 additional submarines.

Meanwhile, at the end of April, the Royal Thai Navy officially received the HTMS Chang landing ship from China. As a Type-071 large landing ship, HTMS Chang has a full displacement of up to 25,000 tons, can carry 800 soldiers, 4 hovercraft, dozens of armored combat vehicles... and multi-mission helicopters. This ship was ordered by Thailand from China in 2019 for about 130 million USD.

In addition, according to the Bangkok Post, Thailand in 2016 ordered 28 VT4 heavy tanks from China for a total value of about 140 million USD. In 2017, Bangkok ordered 11 more for about 58 million USD, and then bought 14 more VT4s for more than 66 million USD in 2018.

Commenting on the South China Morning Post, international affairs expert Ian Storey once assessed that the US's implementation of measures to restrict arms supplies to Thailand since the 2014 coup has created conditions for Beijing to become an arms supplier to Bangkok.

VT4 tanks are in service with the Thai army.

Thai General once wanted to help China deter at sea?

Regarding Bangkok's arms deals with Beijing, in late 2020, Khaosod newspaper published a copy of a letter said to have been sent in September of the same year by Admiral Luechai Rutdit, then Commander of the Royal Thai Navy, to the Deputy Director of the Chinese Defense Industry Technology Department.

Through the letter, General Luechai asked the Chinese side to send representatives to secretly go to Thailand to sign the necessary agreements to promote the plan to buy the second and third submarines.

The above copy also contains the content of General Luechai mentioning the Type-071 landing ship that Thailand ordered from China in 2019. In the letter, General Luechai suggested that the Type-071 ship sold to Thailand should also be equipped with the same type of ship that the Chinese navy is using. He suggested that Thailand's Type-071 landing ship should be equipped with a 76mm AK-176MA gun and 4 30mm AK-630 close-in artillery systems.

Mr. Luechai said that this would help create "a strategic deterrent when Thailand deploys the Type-071 landing ship to operate in the Gulf of Thailand or in the South China Sea. This would make "other parties" understand that the Type-071 has the ability to operate far from shore without limit."

Recently, China has regularly mobilized Type-071 ships to participate in patrols and exercises in regional waters such as the East Sea, East China Sea...

In another part of the copy, the Thai general also said: "That proves the deterrence capability and readiness of the Chinese navy in Southeast Asia." However, responding to Khaosod at that time, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Navy refused to comment on the letter. However, with what has been made public about military cooperation between the two countries, the relationship between China and Thailand has been constantly tightened over the years.

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