Leavenworth Strategist

Cobra Gold set to begin on Feb 1

(Bangkok Post) The 2010 Thai-US Cobra Gold military exercises has been rescheduled to take place next month, military officers said yesterday.

Joint exercises with China will go on as originally planned, and will include disaster mitigation training, they added.

Cobra Gold, which is usually held in May, will take place between Feb 1 and 11 this year so that soldiers from participating countries can train in cooler and more comfortable weather, according to defence spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng.

The annual drill, in which Thai, US, Singaporean, Japanese, Indonesian, and Korean soldiers will participate, will be held in the navy compound in the coastal province of Rayong.

US representatives will be invited to observe a separate drill between the Thai and Chinese navies, which is also scheduled for early 2010...

UN Opens Thai Staging Base for Burma Relief

By VOA News 24 May 2008

The United Nations opened a staging area at an airport in Thailand's capital Saturday to deliver relief aid to cyclone survivors in neighboring Burma.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was on hand to open the hub at Bangkok's Don Mueang airport just one day after meeting with Burma's junta about relief efforts.

On Friday, Mr. Ban said Burma's top leader agreed to allow all foreign aid workers into the country to help with relief efforts. Burma's military government had refused to allow most foreign aid workers to enter the country and stage a full scale relief effort.