Superpowers are new characters in the Thai-Cambodian battlefield. Soldiers pick up conversation signals and order “drones” to take control of the battle. Dr. Surachat sees Cambodia as playing the role of “tattletale” while Thailand is playing the role of “receiving”. He sees Thailand being forced out of the “bilateral” circle to the “multilateral” circle. He calls for the government to be unified and able to fight back in every way.
Dr. Surachat Bamrungsuk, a security and military strategy scholar at Chulalongkorn University, gave an interview on the program “Inside Thailand” this morning (30 July) about the discovery of Russian mercenaries helping Hun Sen fight in the Thai-Cambodian border area.
Dr. Surachat sees “Russia” as a new character in the battlefield and an unexpected character. Previously, the United States and China were involved. After the announcement of the ceasefire agreement, information began to come from soldiers on the battlefield that They were able to intercept a conversation between two Russians. The first said, “The connection is not clear because all the connections are full. Connect the signal fully.” and talked about connecting some signal equipment, saying that doing this prevented the signal from coming out and ordered to fix it by checking the antenna. The other person replied, “Understood.” When seeing this message, it is easy to interpret that it may be related to drone control, which is a phenomenon no different from Ukraine or Myanmar. It is a drone war, but there is some evidence that cannot be revealed because it is being checked whether it is related to war equipment or not. Thai personnel feel that Cambodia has a tactical controller. They believe that in this case, they need to monitor whether Russia came to help. With Russian tanks that are already in use, it may not be possible to say that Russia came to help, but in this case, three new characters have arrived: the United States, China, and Russia. Dr. Surachat mentioned Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the Myanmar military government, that he ceded the Dawei port area to Russia. This led to the"Wagner Group" entering the war in Myanmar. We see that the geopolitical problems we like to talk about are coming to the border. Dr. Surachat added that in the Chong Chom area, Surin Province, three Chinese were arrested who flew drones and claimed to be journalists. They made claims like the Chinese mafia in Bangkok, saying they knew this person and that person. Before checking, all registrations and documents were found to be fake. Therefore, we question how much weapons China left behind in the military exercises before the incident at the border. However, in the past, quite a lot of weapons were left behind. We see that Chinese spies are another important character. The Cambodian leader ordered scammers to change their mission to be"cyber warriors" for Cambodia in the information war or information war. They may also be Chinese scammers. They have seen the military war in the area, but now Cambodia is playing the role of"tattletale", suing the world about everything, regardless of whether it is real or fake news. While Thailand plays the role of“The Accepting Child” Accepts everything “Recently, Cambodia has been collaborating with the US much more than we thought. Cambodia owes China a lot of money economically, to the point of falling into a Chinese debt trap. China may request concessions for areas, which could become a military base, just like Sri Lanka,” said Dr. Surachat.
Dr. Surachat also revealed that Western academics have long said that China is stringing pearls in this area. Russian soldiers, who still don’t have much information, have asked their soldiers in the field to help collect information and be strict with foreigners who may be spies. Meanwhile, the role of scammers in information warfare is quite big, so they can’t cope.
Dr. Surachat questioned what Thailand will do on the world stage.Because we are on the defensive, but on the other hand, we are the ones who release all the news on the world stage. Our allies who used to be with us believed the information from Cambodia, so it has become our weakness. And call for the ceasefire control committee to seriously perform its duties. Originally within 24 hours, but last night (July 29), there was a report around 8 p.m. that the other side had begun to tighten its forces.
Today, Cambodia is forcing us to leave the bilateral arena and enter the multilateral arena, and a third actor has appeared. Having to be multilateral will be a big point because the issue has escalated. Therefore, we must think about accepting all moves because the battlefield in terms of space is not just our geographical position. What can we change from being a defensive child to something else? Information in Thailand right now will be transformed into something else by the Cambodian side that wants to drive nationalism.“The battlefield issue is not scary, but we are starting to see new actors. Drone warfare operations are beginning. Communication and positioning are very delicate. Sending information is something we are worried about that may not be possible in a confrontation like this because we will immediately become the target of drones,” said Dr. Surachat.
Finally, Dr. Surachat said that he wants to see a strong government and unity in working, while their side is comfortable. Cambodia's preparations are complete in every step. Fighting in every form, the question is, will the Thai side be able to fight more?
