Международная научная конференция ЮВА в СПбГУ-65

Международная научная конференция, посвященная 65-й годовщине начала изучения языков ЮВА в нашей стране Circumventing the ColdWar divisions:Thailand and India in the South-to-South Diplomatic Space 345 This policy of constructive engagement was based on two assumptions. On the one hand, Nehru believed that China’s main goal was regime legitimation through rapid economic development, and it was for this reason that China needed a period of peace and stability [Acharya 2017: 99]. On the other hand, Nehru was convinced that although China wanted peace, it had serious concerns about American policy in Southeast Asia. The Cold War in the Asia theatre was heightened after the Korean War, and the United States was escalating its intervention in Indochina in response to the defeat of the French in the battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. Moreover, the United States had involved Thailand—China’s neighbour, in its strategy of containment and military alliances which resulted in the establishment of SEATO in September 1954. Thailand was the key state that enabled the US presence in the mainland Southeast Asia [Neuchterlein 1965: xiii-xiv]. Thailand held the strategic location as frontline which was the key to the West’s attempt to contain communism in the mainland Southeast Asia. Thailand had greater strategic advantages than the Philippines, the other SoutheastAsian country in SEATO, due to at least three factors. Firstly, the distance from the Thai northeastern provinces such as Nakhon Panom, Ubon, Udorn and Korat, to North Vietnam was almost half of that between the Philippines and North Vietnam. Secondly, as Thailand is situated in the mainland this meant that the US weapons, ammunitions and food supply could be sent from Bangkok to different bases in Thailand and South Vietnam by roads, which would cost less than flights and arrive faster than ships from the Philippines to South Vietnam. Thirdly, the fact that Thailand was the only country in Southeast Asia that had no sense of bitterness against white foreigners and its strong sense of anti- Communism, which had already existed, made it a good partner in the American global Cold War strategy. Thai cooperation with the United States in turn threatened Chinese security. However, had Thailand changed its path to India’s positive engagement with the PRC, that would have lessened the American presence in the Southeast Asian mainland, which would have consequently eased the Cold War tensions in the region. This was