Online Lecture: Exploring Greater Engagement between Central Asia and Southeast Asia
Date and Time: 28 July 2021 at 15:30 (GMT +6)

The talk will examine the driving factors towards greater engagement between Central Asia and Southeast Asia, including with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Firstly, strengthening relations with Southeast Asian countries is consistent with the Central Asian states’ multi-vector foreign policy and their desire to diversify economic partners. Secondly, the Eurasian Economic Union’s (EAEU) eastward shift towards Asia, following Western sanctions on Russia, has added impetus to strengthening Central Asian-Southeast Asian relations. Thirdly, Central Asia’s key landbridge role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted Southeast Asian countries’ greater attention as they seek to gain access to the markets of Central Asia and Europe. Fourthly, rising Central Asian concerns regarding China have prompted some to propose strengthening relations with key countries of Southeast Asia, amongst others, as one possible counterweight. The talk will lastly examine Thailand’s relations with Central Asia from a practitioner’s perspective.

Short bio

Dr Paradorn Rangsimaporn is a Thai diplomat and independent researcher. He is Minister-Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission at the Royal Thai Embassy in Nur-Sultan, Republic of Kazakhstan, which also covers relations with the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan. He was previously Head of Section for Russia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and earlier worked at the Royal Thai Embassy in Vienna, Austria. His research interests are in Russian foreign policy, especially towards Asia and
ASEAN, and the international relations of Central Asia. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and a book entitled Russia as an Aspiring Great Power in East Asia: Perceptions and Policies from Yeltsin to Putin (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). He is currently working on a book on Central Asia’s relations with Southeast Asia, also to be published by Palgrave Macmillan. He holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies and a DPhil in International Relations, all from the University of Oxford.

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