Amidst the shimmering waves and the gentle hum of naval prowess, the HTMS ‘Sukhothai,’ a corvette embodying the strength and history of the Royal Thai Navy (RTN), once cut through the waters with grace and might. Adorned with the capability to launch torpedoes, it was a vessel of pride seen at the annual military drills at the Sattahip Naval Base in Chon Buri, enchanting onlookers with its formidable presence. Fast forward to a fateful December day in 2022, and the Sukhothai now rests in the sunken silence of the Gulf of Thailand, its glory submerged, its future uncertain.
While the HTMS Sukhothai lies beneath the waves in its watery grave, the surface world is rippling with the undercurrents of diplomatic communication. The Joint United States Military Advisory Group Thailand (Jusmagthai) has, with a sense of urgency akin to a second nudge to a snoozing shipmate, dispatched a further communiqué to the RTN. According to the ever-vigilant cogs of governance, Chayaphon Satondee, Bangkok’s representation in parliament and a member of the House committee with eyes on the 2024 budget, unleashed a dance of documents during a session of debate that revealed Jusmagthai’s concern.
Jusmagthai, the vigilant sentinel overseeing military commerce between the Land of Smiles and the Land of the Free, has voiced a resonating reminder that silence is not always golden. A chorus of concerns has yet to receive a response since the HTMS Sukhothai’s descent into the abyss on the eighteenth of December.
With the tact and precision of a chess grandmaster, the advisory group issued its second prod to the RTN on the first day of December, urging adherence to agreements once inked with a flourish. Whispers abound of a local contractor shaking hands with China to raise the nautical phoenix from its depths.
A January breeze had carried the first cautionary note to the RTN’s shores, yet the winds of communication have mysteriously fallen still, with no word crossing the seas back to America. Mr. Chayaphon, the bearer of news, states an obligation binds the RTN: to seek the US’ benediction for a third-party contractor to undertake the deep-sea resurrection. Ignoring this duty is not merely an oversight but a blunder that could unfold into a tapestry of complications affecting military trade between the nations, he warns.
Navy chief Adm Adung Phan-iam, a stalwart at the helm, has intimated that the navy is meticulously knotting together the strands of this Gordian situation. He hints that an American hand in the salvage might well push back the timeline, stretching beyond the elastic spring of April prognosticated for retrieval.
Yet the RN may have found its champion – a bidder victorious beneath the budgeted banner of 199 million baht. Approval is the next port, not yet docked at but visible on the horizon.
Meanwhile, high above this naval narrative, military camaraderie weaves another tale as ACM Chanon Mungthanya, deputy commander-in-chief, adorned his finest welcome for Adm John C Aquilino, the US’ Indo-Pacific Command’s commander. Their dialogue echoed a pledge for deeper military communion, soldering bonds to be showcased in the grand spectacle of the joint Cobra Gold military exercise come February, a testament that even amidst salvage and sunk corvettes, alliances, like ships, must be built to weather any storm.
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