This document summarizes research on Thailand's potential involvement in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It examines the experiences of Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Pakistan with BRI projects. Sri Lanka took on significant debt for ports that were underutilized. Cambodia has strongly benefited from infrastructure and development funding due to its close friendship with China. Pakistan sees BRI's China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as strategically important for connectivity and development. The researcher argues Thailand could learn from these examples to mutually benefit from BRI through improved infrastructure, technology, and economic ties with China while maintaining long-term friendship. Cautiously engaging in targeted BRI projects may strengthen Thailand's economy and relationships.

1. ‘Belt and Road Initiative: BRI’: A strengthening path for
Thailand and China
Amid changing international milieus
Associate Professor Wararak Chalermpuntusak, Ph.D.
(Center for ASEAN and International Studies: CAIS)
School of Political Science
Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU)

2. Research background
•Lessons learnt from the involvement of Sri Lanka,
Cambodia, and Pakistan with BRI
• Changing international milieus – waning of the West (?) vs
waxing of the others, e.g. China
• To what extent and when three choses cases get involved
with BRI (till circa 2021 – end of research time-frame)
• Comprehending the significance of BRI towards both
Chinese society and those of chosen cases
• Understanding an evolution of the so-called ‘debt trap’,
praising and concerned voices from chosen cases

3. Methods, frameworks and objectives
• Online-documentary research – English language open sources
• Broad frame drawn from IR/IPE perspectives specifically related to
public policy, emphasizing on economic matters, of chosen cases:
Cambodia (positive); Sri Lanka (negative); Pakistan (neutral, albeit
most strategically significance)
• Questions: to what extent and when they engage with BRI, what
kinds of projects they concur and whether or not they satisfy with
BRI’s embracement, set up by constructivist and historical approaches
for content analysis
• Objectives: to propose the finding for policy-makers’ consideration on
whether or not and to what extent we, the Thai society and
government, should be on broad BRI’s craft, and to guide engaging
dimensions, if need be, for closer cooperation between BKK and
Beijing

4. Finding: interests, friendship, and strategic importance
• Sri Lanka – strategic ports
• Long civil war
• Weakening of traditional supports from the West
• Increasing opportunity for Beijing
• Colombo Port City – Free trade Area
• Hambantota (a long story)
• (strategic) Port, an international airport, and a cricket field
• Tsunami and Rajapaksa Family
• The so-called ‘debt trap’
• Inappropriate time for international borrowing (2007-2009 financial difficulty)
• Geological difficulty – heavier investment than expected
• Lesser clients that anticipated

5. Finding: interests, friendship, and strategic importance
• Cambodia – up-close friendship
• Friendship for investment and vice versa
• Various infrastructures
• Agricultural development
• Koh Kong – Dara Sakor
• airport in the jungle, a new deep-sea port
• Reconstruction
• Sihanoukville
• New mega cities a la Shenzhen and Singapore
• (Added on?) Ream Naval Base

6. Finding: interests, friendship, and strategic importance
• Pakistan – core (?) strategic partnership
• Long-term friendship – Kara Koram Highway (KKH)
• Mediator between US and China in the 1970s
• Security and political strategic driven
• Pervez Musharrah changed the tide
• China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – connecting Belt and Road
one belt, three axes and several passages
a mega-national upgrading project
• Gwadar
• (mutual) development to ease secession problem (Balochistan)
• Natural deep-sea port – military outpost (?)
• Energy pipeline – alternative route

7. Lessons learnt for consideration and a proposal
• Interests, friendship and strategic importance
• Learn to see their intertwining aspects from both Thailand’s and China’s point
of views for mutual benefits and long-last friendship
• Quite active actions to approach China
• Comparing to a rather passive Thai government in the past
• BKK APEC 2022 shows changing signs
• BRI at least generates positive atmosphere
• Drawing in China’s immense capital and advanced technology
• Re/construct and/or upgrading advanced infrastructure
• Build connecting megalopolises (e.g. link EEC areas with Cambodia, southern
and inland China)
• Klong-Thai Landbridge

8. Q&A
Thank YOU for your attention