Thai Cabinet nods for purchase of VN-1 from China

BANGKOK, June 14 (TNA) - The Thai Cabinet has approved a Royal Thai Army plan to procure a new rubber-wheel armored vehicle from China to strengthen the national defence. Defence Ministry Spokesman Major General Kongcheep Tantravanich told journalists of the Cabinet's resolution on Wednesday, after its weekly meeting earlier in the day. The spokesman stated that the Thai Cabinet agreed on the Royal Thai Army's plan to spend its budget of about 2.3 billion baht on the purchase of the VN-1 armored car from China to replace a V150 armored vehicle that has served the nation for more than 50 years. According to the spokesman, the new VN-1 antitank, once procured, will be used by the King's Guard, 1st Cavalry Division, under the Royal Thai Army, to enhance national defence capacity, as well as protect national sovereignty and interest. According to the spokesman, China's additional support for funding the construction of a maintenance hub for armored vehicles in Thailand under a bilateral coopeation plan on the national defence industry between Beijing and Bangkok, covering military technological transfer, has been already adopted to be a required condition for other producing countries of armored vehicles and military weapons to follow suit by building their maintenance facilities in Thailand as an additional support. Meanwhile, the Royal Thai Army plans to have the maintenance center for armored vehicles, sponsored by China, constructed in Nakhon Ratchasima Province in the Thai Northeast. (TNA)