Thailand received more battle tanks from China this week, an army official said Thursday, three months after Bangkok took delivery of armored infantry vehicles from the United States.
Ten VT-4 main battle tanks – the final lot of the total of about 50 vehicles – and 38 VN-1 armored personnel carriers, among other military equipment, arrived on Tuesday from China at a port in Chonburi province, southeast of Bangkok, a high-ranking military officer said.
“The tanks and armored cars were brought to the Adisorn Cavalry Center in Saraburi province for inspection,” the officer told BenarNews on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He declined to elaborate.
Thailand has not officially confirmed the arrival of its military acquisitions from Beijing, amid domestic criticism over its defense budget despite an economic slowdown.
Bangkok has allocated 233 billion baht (U.S. $7.7 billion) for its security spending for fiscal year 2020, even though the growth rate for Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy was forecasted by the International Monetary Fund to slow down to 3 percent next year.
The United States froze $4.7 million of security-related aid and cancelled security agreements with Thailand in 2014, when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, then the army chief, led a bloodless putsch that deposed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Washington’s move was a consequence of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, a law that bars American security forces from cooperating with nations where an elected government has been toppled through a coup.
But military ties improved after civilian rule was officially restored this year through the Thai general election, which critics said was engineered to keep Prayuth in power.
The latest delivery of battle tanks from Beijing was part of the 50 tanks and auxiliary vehicles ordered in 2016 by the Thai junta from NORINCO, China’s defense corporation, in a deal aimed at replacing M-41 tanks, which were built in the U.S. in the 1950s, Army officials said. The deal was worth about 7 billion baht (U.S. $231 million).
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