Thailand halts plan to buy subs from China
Print Edition
The Thai navy’s plan to buy three new submarines from China has apparently been put on hold by the military-led government.
Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan yesterday suggested that navy chief Admiral Kraisorn Chansuvanit review his plan to buy the made-in-China subs under a government-to-government deal, adding that the proposal will not be submitted to the Cabinet under Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha for the time being.
In particular, Prawit said Kraisorn, who had strongly pushed for the Chinese vessels in preference to those from European and South Korean suppliers, should take into account “the public reception” of the plan.
“It remains to be seen how suitable and cost-effective the subs could possibly be. That is a subject on which the navy is yet to conduct a thorough study,” Prawit said.
“In the meantime, the navy should monitor public reception of such a procurement plan while the country’s 2 trillion baht (US$58.7 billion) maritime interests are at stake,” he said.
Prawit said he is directly responsible for the forwarding of the plan so it will not be considered by the Cabinet anytime soon.
“It is not going to be submitted to the Cabinet for the time being,” he said.
He did not say when it might be submitted to the Cabinet, headed by Prayut who has remained non-committal about it.
Kraisorn said earlier that the submarines were required as a deterrent and would not be used for offensive reasons.
“They are not necessarily meant for deployment in war time,” the navy chief said.
The boats could potentially be deployed in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea to safeguard lines of communication, undersea natural resources, and coastal and island resorts, he said.
A procurement committee had earlier visited dockyards in several countries including Germany, Sweden, France, South Korea and China before reaching a unanimous decision to pick the Chinese vessels, Kraisorn said.
Thailand has not owned any submarines in the past six decades though other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have.
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