His Excellency Mr. Chaisiri Anamarn arrived Denmark on January 25 to take up his new posting as Ambassador of Thailand to Denmark.
“It is good to be back in Europe again. This is my second posting as Ambassador,” says H.E. Mr. Chaisiri who brings with him three decades of experience in the diplomatic field.
“Although I have just arrived in Copenhagen, I am well aware that Thailand and Denmark have good relationship with each other over several centuries. We have had diplomatic relationship for a long time and the Royal Families are very close. In terms of political issues, we don’t have any problems with the Danish government, in fact, we are in good terms and we have good projects and programmes collaborated by the Danish Government and Thailand,” he adds.
Mr. Chaisiri has moved in to the residence of the Ambassador of Thailand in Hellerup north of Copenhagen together with his wife, while his two grown up daughters pursue their career in Thailand.
“I hope my stay in Denmark will be fruitful and I look forward to working with the Government of Denmark and build and maintain stronger relationship,” says H.E. Mr. Chaisiri Anamarn.
Mr. Chaisiri Anamarn joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Thailand in 1975 after completing Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at the renowned Thammasat University in Thailand and a Master’s Degree in International Relations at the Eastern Mexico University in Mexico. During his career at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, His Excellency has been posted to several countries. His first overseas assignment was in Brussels, Belgium. Since then he has been posted to the Philippines, Vietnam, Taipei and Malaysia.
His latest posting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is considered an important and challenging post because Malaysia shares the common border with Thailand and is a fellow member of the ASEAN. This was also His Excellency’s first posting as Ambassador.
During his time in Kuala Lumpur, many things had happened particularly in the southern part of Thailand, specifically the riots in the three provinces of Narathiwas, Pattani and Yala. Since Thailand and Malaysia share the common border, the issue becomes sensitive and the job challenging.
“Our job there is not only strengthening the existing relationships,” Mr. Chaisiri says.
“Although we couldn’t do much about the incidents and we couldn’t help Thailand catch the criminals if they should flee to Malaysia, we could work on smoothening out feelings and helping the Malaysian authorities understand the situation,” he adds.
Regarding the tsunami incident that hit Asia in late December 2004, His Excellency had already completed his four year mission as Ambassador of Thailand to Malaysia and was residing in Thailand for the preparation of embarking the new posting in Denmark, when the incident occurred.
“However, I had followed the incident very closely, not only about Thailand but other affected countries as well. Talking about the tsunami, we appreciate the cooperation and assistance we have received from the Danish government in terms of redirecting the projects previously undertaken in other provinces in Thailand and relocating the funds to the provinces that have been affected by the tsunami namely Krabi, Phuket and Phanga,” he says.
The incident has badly affected the tourism industry in Thailand as the country earns a lot of income from the industry especially from provinces of Phuket, Krabi and Phanga. H.E. Mr. Chaisiri feels that Thailand needs to restore the feelings and confidence for the tourists, especially from Europe to go back to the country and the way to build up confidence is to set up the early warning system so that people who take vacation in the particular region will be more comfortable.
“After the incident, we hosted the Ministers’ Meeting on the Regional Cooperation of Tsunami Early Warning Arrangement on 28-29 January 2005,” Mr. Chaisiri explains..
“Thailand invited all countries concerned, not only the countries affected but also the countries that lost their people such as the Nordic countries including Denmark. We are persuading them to join us because after the incident took place, we need to have the system that tells us what is going to happen in the future and how do we alert our people so as to avoid any more tragedies. The Thai government will invite the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of countries who would like to be part of the arrangement,” adds His Excellency.
“I hope that Thailand will restore the confidence to the people, who wish to have a good vacation to go back to Thailand. This is because Thailand is still a paradise for the tourists,” Mr. Chaisiri adds.
To Mr. Chaisiri, being a diplomat is a career quite different from any other. When posted overseas, a diplomat represents the country and the head of state. As for Thailand, the embassy represents His Majesty the King and the head of government, which is Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Mr. Chaisiri believes that national interests should come first, however, in the world of globalization today, we should not think of other countries as competitors, but rather as partners, where we work together in cooperation to bring out the best mutual benefits between countries.
“Being in this career, you have to adjust yourself to wherever you go.”
“You have to know the background of the country, the issues you have to deal with, the culture and environment of the country. It is not that easy because we have to move around and if we have our family with us then we have to put the children to school and of course we have to be far away from home,” His Excellency says.
