Most assistant foreign military attaches understand Thai NCPO's role

BANGKOK, June 25 (TNA) - Most assistant foreign military attaches have expressed their understanding of the Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)'s role and offered to help explain its role to their government and armed forces. NCPO Spokesman Colonel Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak told journalists of the update on Wednesday afternoon, after concluding a briefing for assistant foreign military attaches, the second of its kind. Colonel Weerachon said that the assistant foreign military attaches also asked the NCPO to, from now on, organise similar briefings every week. Colonel Weerachon acknowledged, however, that most of the assistant foreign military attaches expressed concerns over how long the military junta will stay and work so that they can inform their governments and armed forces. Colonel Weerachon noted that the assistant foreign military attaches did not pressure the NCPO, as they appeared to fully understand Thailand's situation after staying in the country for a long time. Colonel Weerachon revealed that he, nonetheless, stressed on Thailand’s disappointment with the European Union (EU)'s decision on June 23 on reviewing its relations with Thailand, in response to a coup staged by the NCPO on May 22, 2014, and asked the assistant foreign military attaches from European countries to also help explain to their governments and armed forces. Regarding on the United States' last Friday move to drop Thailand to the lowest level of “Tier 3”, from Tier 2, in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, the NCPO spokesman proposed that Washington monitor how NCPO solves the problem. On recent reports that the United States has suspended its addtional security support to Thailand, worth 4.7 million US dollars, and the possibility that Washington will relocate the Cobra Gold annual military exercise in the region from Thailand to another country, the NCPO spokesman said that the issue remains unclear but the NCPO expressed concerns over the issue and asked Washington to separate politics from security. According to the NCPO spokesman, he also briefed Cambodia’s assistant military attache on the Thai military junta's attempt to reorganise migrant workers in Thailand and the Phnom Penh officer expressed his understanding, while a number of Cambodians have begun returning to work in the Thai Kingdom. The 15 assistant foreign military attaches attending the briefing included those from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia.(TNA)