POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE USSR-THAILAND RELATIONS: THE ROLE OF THE REGIONAL FACTOR

Abstract

The article is devoted to the Soviet period of Russian-Thai relations, poorly studied both in Russian and foreign historiography. Soviet-Thai relations are viewed through the prism of the entire 125-year history of bilateral ties and are studied as part of a general process that has its own laws. This allowed the author to highlight the cross-cutting trends noted at various stages of bilateral interaction. According to the author, the regional political interests dominated in the Soviet-Thai dialogue. Other formats of cooperation (economic, cultural) were not of particular importance for the parties and played a secondary role. The lack of expressed interests in the USSR and Thailand in each other, as well as the lack of needs (and in some cases, opportunities) for establishing and expanding bilateral cooperation was due to many circumstances, such as geographical remoteness, the absence of common borders, regional differences, and a significant difference in the mentality and structure of society. Lacking a solid foundation of well-established economic ties and being burdened with multiple political and ideological contradictions, Soviet-Thai relations developed unstable and weakly dynamic. By reason of the relations between the USSR and Thailand were largely dependent on external factors: the alignment of forces in the region and in the world, the positions, and actions of various players in Southeast Asia, sharp differences in tone, nature and level of bilateral ties, as a rule, were a direct consequence of changes in the regional and a reflection of global geopolitical transformations.

Keywords:

USSR, Thailand, political relations, Southeast Asia, regional problems, Cambodian crisis