Statement by H.E. Yevgeny V. Afanasiev,
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Thailand
"RUSSIAN-THAI RELATIONS: HISTORY AND MODERN TIMES"
October 2005
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
First of all I would like to express my deep appreciation for providing me with the opportunity to speak about Russian-Thai relations, their historical background and modern development before such an esteemed audience here at the seminar organized by the "Thai Airways International".
In 1997, both our countries celebrated the 100 years anniversary of the Russian-Thai diplomatic relations. Now we are approaching the next landmark - in 2007 our countries will celebrate the 110 anniversary of bilateral relations.
In this regard, I would like to remind that as early as in the late 1870-s King Chulalongkorn on numerous occasions expressed his wish to establish permanent diplomatic relations with Russia. Russian naval officers whose ships periodically came to Bangkok carried to the Russian Emperor the first Royal letters with clear intention of the Siamese government to develop bilateral trade, diplomatic and cultural cooperation with Russia. A real breakthrough in the bilateral relations was made later by the visit of the Heir to the Imperial throne Tsesarevich Nicholas, the son of the then reigning Emperor Alexander III, to Siam in 1891. It was a part of the Eastern Voyage of the Tsesarevich who was familiarising himself with Asia and Asian affairs on recommendation of his farther Alexander III. Notwithstanding its unofficial status, the visit gave a great impulse to the advancement of relations between the two countries and in fact marked the beginning of close and long-lasting personal friendship between Tsar Nicholas II and King Chulalongkorn, and in a broader sense between two our countries and peoples.
The Russian Crown Prince and his entourage were welcomed in Siam with all due honours and utmost warmth. King Chulalongkorn personally took care of the visiting Russian Crown Prince and awarded him with the Order of Chakri. The King hosted festivities in honour of the Tsesarevich both in Bangkok and at the Bang Pa In Palace and saw him off on the last day.
Several months later a captain of a Russian naval ship delivered a letter of gratitude from Alexander III to King Chulalongkorn together with the Order of St.Andrew bestowed by the Emperor upon the Siamese Monarch - the first in the number of Russian decorations received by members of the Thai Royal family.
The visit of Prince Damrong, brother of King Chulalongkorn and Director-General of the National Department of Education of Siam, to Russia became the next step in the development of relations between the two countries. Prince Damrong was an active participant of the process of establishment and development of the Russia-Siam relations. He came to Russia in November 1891 and was received by Alexander III in Livadia - a gorgeous Royal summer residence on the banks of the Black Sea. The Prince delivered a letter and the Order of Chakri which had been sent to the Russian Emperor by the King of Siam. In his letter King Chulalongkorn re-confirmed the intention to further develop friendly relations with Russia.
Starting from 1891, official visits and personal contacts including the exchange of correspondence between the Russian Imperial Family and the Siamese Royal Family became frequent and regular and played an important role in the development of relations between the two countries. In 1893 Russia started to provide her support to Siam to resolve the conflict with her neighbours of that time. In 1896 the Russian Imperial Government invited a Royal Siamese representative to participate in the festivities on the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas II as the Emperor of Russia.
A year later King Chulalongkorn himself paid a visit to Russia. Friendly and sincere support provided to him by the Russian Side played a very important role in the success of this trip. The highest honours, utmost hospitality and respect which had been extended to King Chulalongkorn in Russia once and for all confirmed the status of the Siamese Monarch as a sovereign equal to European Kings.
When King Chulalongkorn arrived in St. Petersburg on June 19, 1897 by the special Emperor's train, he was welcomed by the members of the Imperial Family and a military escort of the Imperial Guards. On arrival the King of Siam proceeded to the Petergof Palace, the Imperial summer residence, where Emperor Nicholas II welcomed him. During following ten days the King of Siam visited St. Petersburg, Moscow and the main Russian naval base in Kronshtadt.
King Chulalongkorn's visit prompted sincere and wide interest in Siam and Siamese affairs among Russian public. Newspapers extensively covered the visit, issuing publications about Siam and the Siamese King. For example, Vedomosti of St. Petersburg, a leading Russian newspaper wrote in an editorial: "In his person we are greeting not only one of the greatest men of our time, […] but also a true friend of Russia. The power of this friendship lies in mutual respect, in the senses of straightforwardness and simplicity common to both peoples. (…) Our friendship towards Siam is honest and non-hypocritical, which His Majesty the King of Siam can confidently rely upon".
During the negotiations in St. Petersburg Nicholas II and King Chulalongkorn agreed, as it is known, to establish diplomatic relations between Russia and Siam and to prepare the Treaty on Friendship and Maritime Navigation, which was signed in 1899. The monarchs agreed also that Prince Chakrabongse, the second son of King Chulalongkorn, would come to Russia for his studying and military training. It is also worth to note that Prince Chakrabongse's studies in Russia had paved the way to other children from the Siamese noble families to Russian universities and in the first decade of the XXth century a good few of them were getting their education in Russia.
Following the decision of the two sovereigns, the exchange of diplomatic representatives took place in 1897 and 1898. Phraya Suriya Nuvat, the Siamese Minister who was representing King Chulalongkorn in Europe with residence in Paris, received an additional appointment to the Russian Imperial Court. He had accompanied the King on his Russian trip and had been introduced to Nicholas II.
In 1898 Alexander Olarovski, the Russian Consul-General in New York, was transferred to Siam and appointed as the Russian Charge d'Affaires and the Consul General. Before his departure from America, Olarovski received a ten-page instructive letter from the Russian Foreign ministry. The major part of it contained clear directions concerning the Russian policy towards Siam. The essence of that policy was expressed in the following lines of the letter: "Your conduct in its entirety should bear the imprint of favourable attention which our august Monarch is willing to extend to the person of the Siamese King, as well as to the fortunes of his people; it should respond to the sincerity and warmth which are put by Siam at the base of our relations".
The text of the letter had been personally approved by the Russian Emperor, and diplomatic representatives of Russia in Bangkok consistently followed it.
The establishment of diplomatic relations and the signing of several treaties that followed, as well as the development of regular dynastic and personal contacts, helped to promote deeper mutual knowledge between the two peoples.
During the decades from the 1917 revolution in Russia up to 1941 when the USSR and Thailand re-established diplomatic relations there were practically no contacts between our states and peoples. The process of restoring relations was interrupted by World War II and the diplomatic missions at the legation level were exchanged only in 1947. Thailand thus became the first non-communist South-East Asian country to establish diplomatic ties with the USSR.
Since then our bilateral interaction have been developing steadily with a mutual respect being the dominant in our relations. Important landmark events on this way were the visits to Moscow and St.Petersburg by the members of the Royal Family, exchange of visits by the Heads of the respective Governments. In the cultural sphere Bangkok witnessed numerous performances of Russian ballet dancers, art exhibitions, symphony music concerts, including those to mark the 50 years Golden Jubilee of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej Reign.
A major stride along the road of advancing of our multifaceted cooperation was made in the years 2002-2003 when due to the efforts of the both sides the Russian-Thai relations have reached the level of strategic partnership. A new era of our bilateral relations was opened by the official visit of Mr.Thaksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand, to Russia in October 2002, and the State visit of Mr.Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, to Thailand in October 2003. It was first ever visit to the Kingdom of Thailand of a Head of State of Russia.
The outcomes of these summits required to foster the diplomatic activity in all spheres towards intensification of a mutually advantageous trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, establishment of an effective interaction among regions of both countries.
The State visit of President Vladimir Putin had a very important meaning for both our countries. The meeting with His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, contacts and negotiations that took place in Bangkok helped to complete the rebirth of that special nature and character of the Russia-Thailand bilateral interaction which had been first established between our nations over a hundred years ago. As the Russian President declared in Bangkok "time has in no way eroded our peoples' mutual attraction", which constitutes a good ground for the development of our present relations.
Since that time the leaders of our countries maintain stable and confident contacts. Russian President was among the first who expressed to the Prime Minister of Thailand his sympathy after the tsunami strike last year and assured the Thai Government of Russia's solidarity and support in that tragic situation. Russia took an active part in disaster relief operations in affected areas providing humanitarian aid worth of 22 million dollars in money terms for the elimination of the consequences of the earthquake and tsunami. Taking into account the deliveries made by planes of the Russian Emergency Situations and Defense Ministries of several hundred tons of humanitarian aid, medicines and food to the affected areas, Russia's contribution to the elimination of the consequences of the natural disaster was approximately 33 million dollars.
After the State visit President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra met twice - in Chili in 2004 in the framework of the APEC summit and recently in Moscow on October 15, when Thai Prime Minister paid a working visit to Russia. The leaders discussed important issues of bilateral cooperaion, including the growth of bilateral trade turnover, interaction in education, science and technology, energy, infrastructure development. Regular telephone conversations between the leaders and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of both countries speak for informal and personal character of their relations.
The meetings between Russian and Thai Foreign Ministers also became a good tradition in our relations as well as the established practice of exchange of messages on key international and bilateral issues. The consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs are also held on a steady basis. The official visit of Russian Foreign Minister Mr. Sergey Lavrov in December last year and recent meeting of both Ministers during the ARF session in Vientiane in July this year once again reconfirmed similar or close approaches of both sides to major international and regional issues, thus creating a solid basis for our productive cooperation in international and regional mechanisms including the UN, APEC, the framework of Russia-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership and ARF. Russia's joining the ACD this year - the mechanism which was initiated by Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra - opens new dimensions of mutually beneficial cooperation including such important spheres as prevention of natural disasters and disaster relief operations, ensuring of energy security. And we are very appreciative of Thailand's support in promoting Russia's application to the ACD.
Russian-Thai parliamentary contacts, which is another important area of bilateral relations, have been given a new impetus, and we can witness now a fairly wide range of meetings between representatives of the two legislative bodies.
Substantial positive shifts have been seen in updating the legal basis of bilateral cooperation. To this end a number of agreements have been signed in recent years in economic and cultural spheres, including those aimed at further promoting trade and tourism, fostering interaction in fighting transnational crime and illicit drug trafficking.
I am glad to note in this context the growing interest of Russia and Thailand to establish cooperation in fighting terrorism and international crime. We consider the establishing of direct contacts between the law-enforcement agencies of both countries to facilitate the information and experts' exchange as a good and mutually beneficial start to this important process.
The issues of Russia-Thailand anti-narcotics cooperation have been also actively elaborated.
The latest example of the intensification of our cooperation in humanitarian sphere and tourism is the establishing in 2004 of the first Russian Honorary Consul Post in Thailand. Khun Panga Vathanakul became our Honorary Consul in Pattaya with Rayong and Chonburi being the district of her responsibility. We believe that it would be of much help to strengthen Russia-Thailand trade and economic interaction, promote humanitarian and tourist contacts between our countries, taking into account that more than 100 thousand Russians visit Thailand annually with 115 thousand Russian tourists visited Thailand last year. Russia now is placed the 7th among European countries with the biggest amount of tourists in Thailand.
I am glad to note that more and more young Thais want to learn the Russian language, to study Russia, the present and the past, culture and traditions of our country. Many Thai students choose Russian universities for higher education, mainly in information technologies, ecology, law, medicine. With the growth of our economic cooperation, expansion of tourist exchanges, joint venture businesses, the demand for Russian-speaking specialists is also growing. Now graduates from Russian universities find jobs not only in the private sector, but also in government agencies.
We also enjoy vivid cultural cooperation. Cultural contacts between Russia and Thailand are becoming more and more frequent and rich in form and essence. Russian performers participate in various international festivals and other events held in Thailand. One of the memorable events in Russian-Thai cultural relations is the ballet "Katya ad the Price of Siam" jointly staged in Bangkok in December 2003. The Days of Russian Culture in Thailand and the Days of Thai Culture in Russia are, in this context, the brightest and most important events of 2004 and 2005 respectively, meant to acquaint the public of both countries with the best achievements in cultural sphere.
We hope that launch of "Thai Airways" direct flights to Moscow will contribute greatly to further development of our interaction in all spheres of humanitarian interaction.
Now I would like to proceed to an important area of our cooperation - it is of course trade and economy. In general I can mention that the Asia-Pacific region is one of Russia's most dynamic trade and economic partners. Its share in Russia's foreign trade constitutes 25 percent. More than one third of all joint ventures registered in Russia have been set up with participation of companies from the Asia-Pacific. Today, Russia has over 400 joint ventures doing business in this region, including several companies here in Thailand, such as Aeroglobal Co., Ltd., ASPAC Co., Ltd., SF Global Shipping (Thailand) Co., Ltd. and others.
In Russian-Thai bilateral trade we overpassed the level of $1 billion in our trade turnover last year thus making Thailand №1 trade partner of Russia in South East Asia. The present growth by the estimates for 7 months of this year reached 92% ($1262,3 million). The main products exported from Russia to Thailand are rolled steel and scrap metal, fertilizers, unprocessed minerals, synthetic rubber, diamonds, pulp and paper, etc. Russia imports sugar, rice, gems, clothes, shoes, canned food and many other Thai products.
However, the huge potential of Russian-Thai trade, as I think, has not been fully realized yet. We believe, in particular, that there is a strong necessity to diversify bilateral trade, to expand the volume of Thai exports to Russia as your country is a well known world producer of a high quality and competitive goods. On our side we are rich not only in natural resources, but also in modern technology products, for instance space technologies. We must admit that the main cause of the rather slow growth of Thai exports to our country as well as overall limitations in bilateral trade and investment is a general lack of knowledge of the opportunities, provided by the huge Russian market and production capacities.
To overcome this gap the Seminar "Russia - a new market for small and medium enterprises" was organized in February last year here in Bangkok jointly by the Office of Thailand Trade Representative, Chamber of Industry and the Thai-Russian Trade Association followed by the field trip to Russia's Siberia and the Far East by Thai business delegation. It vividly reconfirmed the mutual interest of business communities of our countries to boost economic and investment interaction and to expand it to new spheres of cooperation, first of all innovation technologies and energy cooperation. Today's meeting is yet another sign of growing interest towards Russia from different parts of Thai community, which comes along the continuation of traditionally friendly and mutually beneficial ties that exist between our two countries for more than a century.
Concrete measures and further prospects of our interaction are scheduled to be discussed at the coming regular session of the Joint Russian-Thai Commission on bilateral cooperation which will be held in Bangkok. I am sure that the present seminar will also contribute greatly to further development of Russian-Thai economic and trade contacts. We do have every reason to expect it because economic situation in Russia itself has stabilised and is constantly improving.
Over these last years the Russian economy has been growing at a rate of around 7% a year. Last year our economy grew by 7,1% and this year we are expecting a figure of 5,9%. We have trade surplus and primary budget surplus. The Central Bank's gold and currency reserves are growing and have now reached $155 billion. Just as a reminder, in 2000 they stood at only $12 billion. We are paying off our foreign debt - 16% of our country's GDP - here we have one of the best results in Europe. We have created the Stabilization Fund, which some other countries call a fund for future generations. Experts estimated that 7% annual economic growth rates will be noted by the year 2008. Moreover, inflation will decrease from 10% to approximately 3% over the 2004-2008 period. Russia now ranks among the most rapidly developing countries in the world. Russia has now turned into a major fuel-and-energy exporter - according to some forecasts, Russia is to export nearly 250 million tons of oil by 2006. Thus, domestic economic growth factors are now becoming more important. The Russian leadership's comprehensive measures aiming to create a favourable business environment (including economic debureaucratization and tax burden reduction) are also conductive to economic growth - Russia now has Europe's lowest 13% flat income tax for private individuals. Profit tax levels have been reduced from 35 to 24% with Russian authorities abolishing turnover tax and sales tax, as well. Local banks and loan agencies are gradually being reorganized and enlarged. Moreover all efforts will be exerted in order to subsidize the real economy. Russians, who still prefer to hold most of their savings at home (about $40-50 billion), will obtain sound bank-deposit safety guaranteed by legislation.
Foreign capital inflow into Russia after a sharp drop in 1999 has been markedly growing over the past few years. Economic conditions and growth prerequisites created by 2003 have boosted investment in basic capital by 10 to 20 % a year. Among the most attractive branches is the construction complex, which can grow at up to 10% a year, transport and pipelines. Consumer credit and land mortgage services have a solid potential. The insurance industry is also developing rapidly. Computer technologies and communications boast large growth reserves. Medium and small business are gradually emerging from the shadows becoming ever more attractive for investors.
True, foreign investors now have greater faith in the financial stability and creditworthiness of the Russian state and Russian companies. This fact is confirmed by Russia's improved credit ratings on the world financial markets, which enable it to borrow foreign capital at somewhat better terms than before.
Today with political stability achieved and Russia's political leadership regarded as predictable, prospects for attracting foreign direct investments into the economy are becoming more realistic.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
While staying in Bangkok President Vladimir Putin stressed that our countries are ancient dynamically developing states. We are efficiently building our relations of a new type based on mutual respect of national interests, confidence, sincerity and joint belief in good intentions of each other. This is the essence of the whole complex of close and friendly relationship between Russia and the Kingdom of Thailand. Our cooperation definitely has a great potential for further development. To realise it in practice, mutual efforts for further widening of knowledge of each other potential, to advance and promote people-to-people contacts on various levels and in various spheres are necessary.
Nowadays there are favourable conditions for the development of bilateral economic, scientific and technological and innovative cooperation. In this regard, we consider it expedient to intensify contacts between governmental bodies concerned, economic agents, scientific centers and organizations of both countries to work out concrete directions of cooperation.
I would like to conclude my statement by wishing all the participants of today's meeting success in their business endeavors with Russia. I wish also to express full support and readiness of the Russian Embassy to assist you in any possible way within our means and opportunities in your important activities aimed at further strengthening the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries.
Thank you very much for your attention.
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