Международная научная конференция ЮВА в СПбГУ-65

Международная научная конференция, посвященная 65-й годовщине начала изучения языков ЮВА в нашей стране 342 P. Charoenpacharaporn while De Gaulle was constrained by domestic and geopolitical factors due to France’s position next to Germany—a ColdWar flashpoint—and the volatility within the Fourth Republic [Charoenpacharaporn 2016: 38–40; Lundestad 2003: 86; Kent andYoung 1992: 41–61; Sforza 1948: 450–456; Ruddy 2000: 67–80]. Tito’s eighteen-day visit to India in December 1954 just before the Bogor Conference gave Nehru a spur to formally expand his vision to a regional scale regarding the SEATO collective security pact. Tito and Nehru jointly endorsed the principle of ‘peaceful coexistence’ as a basic political conception which should govern international relations’[ Bangkok Post , 24 Dec 1954]. Moreover, they insisted that non-alignment, which would lead to collective peace, was the only basis on which collective security can really rest [ Bangkok Post , 24 Dec 1954]. It was in this spirit that Nehru boarded a Royal Indian Airforce plane, had Nu join him in Rangoon, and made a long stop-over in Bangkok, the soon-to-be headquarters of SEATO. By December 1954, Nehru was keen to have Thailand on board in the Afro- Asian Conference. Nehru expressed his intention in early December to make a brief stop-over in Bangkok on 26 December to ‘sound out Thai opinion on attending the African-Asian Conference’ [ Bangkok Post , 8 December 1954, 23 December 1954]. The Thai Government prepared to receive him as an honoured guest. Perhaps most importantly Momluang Karb Kunchorn, the Secretary General to the Prime Minister, said that Phibun would welcome an invitation to visit India from the Indian Government [ Bangkok Post , 8 December 1954]. Shortly before 26 December, Nu who had just returned from a visit to Beijing announced that the PRC ‘sincerely’ wanted peaceful ‘co-existence’ and that he would accompany Nehru during his stop-over in Bangkok [ Bangkok Post , 21 December 1954]. The speculation in Bangkok that attending the Bandung Conference would mean Thailand recognized the PRC ran wild. Having been paranoid that this might complicate the Thai relationship with the United States which had just provided for the collective security as well as huge sums of aid, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Vorakan Bancha issued a statement declining Thai participation in the Bandung Conference before receiving