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Former Thai foreign minister Thanat Khoman dies at age 101

2018-07-11T22:04:00Z

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BANGKOK (AP) - Thanat Khoman, who as Thailand's foreign minister helped cement his country's close relations with the United States during the Vietnam War, has died at age 101, his family announced. His death was attributed to natural causes. U.S. diplomats who dealt with Thanat described him admiringly as shrewd and above all, dedicated to seeking advantage for his country. Shifting international politics saw Thanat move from being an advocate of close links to Washington to a promoter of regional balance by establishing relations with China, which had been a Cold War bogeyman. "He defended Thailand's interests with grit and grace," U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Glyn Davies said in a statement after Thanat's death Thursday. FILE - In this Oct. 3, 1961, file photo, then-Thailand's Foreign Minister Thanat Khomanthen, left, talks with then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy at the White House in Washington. Thanat, who as Thailand�s foreign minister helped cement his country's close relations with the United States during the Vietnam War, has died at age 101, his family announced Friday, March 4, 2016. His death was attributed to natural causes. (AP Photo/Bill [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] Allen, File) Thanat is credited with being a major force behind the 1967 founding of the Association of Southeast Asian [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] Nations, a regional grouping which this year is seeking to evolve into a full-fledged ASEAN Economic Community. After working in the Foreign Ministry under three military dictatorships, Thanat entered politics, serving as leader of the Democrat Party, the country's oldest, in 1979-82 and as a deputy prime minister in 1980-82 before withdrawing from public life. Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai described Thanat on Friday as "visionary and ... very determined in protect the interests of our country." Born on May 9, 1914, Thanat studied law at the University of Paris before joining the Thai Foreign Ministry in 1940 and serving in his country's embassy in Japan, which after occupying Thailand in World War II became its nominal ally. Returning to Thailand before the war ended, he joined the anti-Japanese underground. He resumed his diplomatic career with a posting in Washington in 1946-47, returning there as ambassador in 1957-58. He was named foreign minister in 1959, a job he held until 1971, when he was dismissed in a move thought to be linked to his advocacy of rapprochement with China. Thanat's name is most closely associated with the Rusk-Thanat Communique of 1962 - issued with then-U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk - which pledged that the United States would come to Thailand's aid in case it [http://Www.Foxnews.com/search-results/search?q=faced%20aggression faced aggression]. Communist advances in neighboring Laos were the impetus for the agreement, whose importance for both countries grew as communist forces stepped up pressure in South Vietnam as well. The agreement drew Thailand closely into the American orbit, indirectly leading to massive amounts of development aid and the stationing of tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel at air bases around the country used for missions against Vietnam. But when Thanat realized by the end of the 1960s that Washington was unlikely to stick it out in Vietnam, he began urging a realignment of Thailand's foreign relations to win China's favor. Diplomatic relations were established with China in 1975, after Thailand's military rulers had been ousted [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html du lịch Bắc Kinh] and U.S.-backed governments in neighboring Indochina were defeated by communist forces. By 1976, the U.S. military was gone. "Thanat Khoman was a convinced nationalist and worked well with the United States, as long as he felt the relationship was mutually beneficial," veteran U.S. diplomat John Gunther Dean recalled in a 2000 oral history interview for the State Department. "As time went on, Thanat's close relationship with the United States became progressively more strained and he became vocally critical of the U.S. on many subjects." "Thanat favored Asians working together in their own national interest and not relying on one single foreign power for leadership," said Dean, the U.S. envoy to Thailand in 1981-85. Thanat, whose survivors include daughter-in-law Sirilaksana Khoman, a leading anti-corruption activist, is to be cremated after traditional Buddhist funeral rites. Advertisement

Tory rebels urged to back Theresa May in crunch Brexit votes

2018-07-09T14:05:02Z

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Two senior Conservatives from the Leave and Remain wings of the party have come together to urge Tory MPs to back Theresa May in a series of crunch Commons votes on Brexit. Former home secretary Amber Rudd, a leading Remain supporter, and ex-party leader Iain Duncan Smith, a long-standing Brexiteer, warned defeat could lead to the fall of the Government. In a joint article for The Sunday Telegraph, they said that voting to overturn or water down a series of amendments inserted by the Lords into the EU (Withdrawal) Bill should be a �no brainer�. Iain Duncan Smith was among those who backed a Leave vote (Stefan Rousseau/PA) They said Labour would be quick to exploit any setback for the Government for their own purposes. �Jeremy Corbyn will do everything he can to stop us,� they warned. �That includes cynically trying to frustrate the Brexit process for his own political ends, as he will try to do next week when the Commons votes again on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill. �So it behoves us all to demonstrate discipline and unity of purpose in support of the Prime Minister. �We cannot allow ourselves to become divided and risk losing the precious chance to go on implementing policies that transform lives.� While Amber Rudd supported the Remain side (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Ministers - who have accepted just one of the 15 amendments to legislation - are confident of winning most of the votes when the bill returns to the Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, pro-EU Tory rebels believe they could be vulnerable on key measures including the customs union and a requirement for Parliament to have a decisive say over what happens next if it rejects a final Brexit deal. With the Government dependent on the DUP for its majority, Tory whips are expected to crank up the pressure on potential rebels to ensure they have the numbers when it comes to the divisions. They may be boosted by support from a handful of pro-Brexit Labour MPs. Former deputy prime minister Damian Green wrote in the Sunday Express that the majority of the crucial votes would �pass easily�. He said: �The Westminster air is again full of the scent of rebellions, chaos and catastrophic [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html du lịch Bắc Kinh 5 ngày 4 đêm từ Hà Nội] Government defeats. �I predict they simply won�t materialise for one simple reason: the whips can count. �If they think that the Government won�t have a majority, they advise a change in policy.� [http://en.search.wordpress.com/?q=Theresa Theresa] May, in Quebec for the G7 summit, denounced the unelected peers who passed the amendments, accusing them of going far beyond their role as a revising chamber. �Let�s remember what the Withdrawal [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] Bill is for: it�s about delivering a [http://Data.Gov.uk/data/search?q=statute%20book statute book] that is ready for Brexit day,� she said. �Of course, the Lords has a revising role to play - but some of the amendments that were passed and the comments that were made went far beyond that. �You had peers talking about stopping Brexit or trying to tie the Government�s hands in the negotiations. �This Government is delivering on the decision made by the country in the referendum to leave the EU and we will not accept anything that prevents us from taking back control of our money, laws and borders.� Theresa May In their article, Ms Rudd and Mr Duncan Smith said the bill was not about competing visions of the future, but a �technical measure� to ensure there was �legal certainty� when Britain left the EU in March 2019. �The disagreements in the party do not extend [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] to whether we should leave, only how we do it,� they said. �So for Conservatives of every outlook, givingour full support to the Government this week should be a no-brainer. The House of Commons backed the Withdrawal Bill at third reading with a clear majority. Not a single Conservative voted against it.� For Labour, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said pro-EU Tory MPs had a chance to alter the direction of the negotiations if they voted with the opposition on the key amendments. �If Tory MPs who care about these amendments vote with us there is a real chance for Parliament to change the course of the Brexit negotiations and bring some order where there is real chaos,� he told BBC One�s The Andrew Marr Show. Advertisement

User:RetaBillings

2018-07-09T14:04:54Z

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