US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK2600

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANGKOK 002600 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP, EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/11/2015 
TAGS: PREL, ECIN, TH, ASEAN 
SUBJECT: THAILAND: EAST ASIA SUMMIT - THAI IMPRESSIONS 
 
REF: STATE 65630 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert J. Clarke. Reason 1.4(d) 
 
1.  (C) On April 12, Poloff discussed reftel questions and 
passed reftel points to MFA official Buskorn Prugsapongse, 
Director of the Economic and Policy Division, Department of 
ASEAN Affairs.  Buskorn's comments echoed many of those 
provided by the Singapore Embassy in Washington, as reported 
in reftel.  Buskorn said that Thailand views the East Asia 
Summit (EAS) as part of a "long-term vision to create a East 
Asian Community."  Her impression is that the EAS will have a 
broad focus on large strategic issues, while ASEAN plus 3 
would have an agenda focused on more narrow cooperative 
items.  Buskorn would not comment on the substantive agenda 
or expected outcome of the EAS, claiming she had not yet 
received a readout from the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting 
in Cebu where EAS modalities are being discussed.  Buskorn 
said the RTG understands that the U.S. is concerned that the 
EAS might divert attention from other regional structures. 
However, she believes that the EAS will actually complement 
APEC and ARF since those fora do not fully cover all of the 
region's strategic issues.  She said the RTG wants the EAS to 
be as inclusive as possible, but would go along with the 
ASEAN consensus when considering the organization's 
membership. 
BOYCE