The Thai Junta Seeks a Return to Normalcy with Washington

In July, according to spokespeople for Thailand’s government, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will visit Washington for a White House visit. The visit itself, likely in late July, will be a substantial diplomatic and image boost for Prayuth, who led the coup in May 2014 that deposed Thailand’s most recent elected government. The previous U.S. administration allowed Prayuth to meet with President Obama as part of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in February 2016 held in Sunnylands, California (other authoritarian rulers from the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including the leaders of Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia came as well), but it did not offer Prayuth a White House invitation, even though Thailand is a U.S. treaty ally.