Wise words of Thanat

Re: “Recalling Thanat as a diplomatic doyen”, (Opinion, July 20).

This article by Kavi Chongkittavorn about one of the leading architects of Asean is very instructive for the younger generation. Therefore, it deserves to be further completed with some relevant ideas advanced by Thanat Khoman in the field of multilateral diplomacy and reflected in the book titled, Dr Thanat Khoman. The Wit and Wisdom of the Leading Asean Founder.

Referring to the United Nations (UN), the most important world institution, the great Thai diplomat asserted that “the United Nations is a kind of a balance of power. It is a place where differences, divergences, problems, conflicts are kept in a state of fluidity, with negotiations, with open statements of course whether vituperative or conciliatory :but it prevents the problems or the conflicts from erupting into a large-scale war”.

Today, when we witness a dangerous decline of multilateralism, the wise words by Thanat have to be remembered and taken into account in the sphere of multilateral diplomacy in Asean area and beyond it.

Indeed, according to Thanat’s opinion, as a diplomatic strategist, “By creating or by forging regional solidarity, regional cooperation among the nations of this area, we are serving the purposes and the principles of the UN and if all the nations in the world would be animated by the same motives and the same desires, I feel certain that in the years to come the UN will become much stronger than it is now.”

The book dedicated to this great diplomat has to be largely circulated in Asia.

IOAN VOICU