Prince Wan Waithayakon’s Attempt for Rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China at the 1955 Asian-African Conference at Bandung

After the end of the Second World War, newly emerging nations were being divided up geopolitically into ideological camps – the so-called “Free World” led by the United States and the ‘Communist Bloc’ under the leadership of the Soviet Union. At the same time, there was rising demands for self-determination by national leaders who did not wish to commit exclusively to either ideological camp, as they perceived this to be a form of neo-imperialism. A leading group within this third way of thinking was the Colombo Group. In the midst of this intense three-way struggle, post-war Thailand under the leadership of Premier Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram was heavily influenced by the US in the earliest stages of the Cold War. In the attempt to renegotiate and re-balance Thailand’s position in the heightened political tension of the region, the premier sent the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Wan Waithayakon, to represent Thailand at the Asia-Africa Conference – initiated through the cooperation of the Colombo Group earlier in May 1954 – in April 1955. At this conference Prince Wan exercised independent diplomacy by meeting and negotiating with the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in an attempt to re-balance Thailand’s relations with world powers in both the Free World and the Communist Bloc. This meeting would have significant ramifications for Thailand’s diplomacy throughout the Cold War and has impacted the kingdom’s relations with the People’s Republic of China up to the present day.