A Study On Thailand's Development Cooperation With Lao PDR Under South-South Cooperation Framework

South-South Cooperation has been in ascendant for more than half a century of development.A number of developing countries,such as China,Brazil,Russia,India,South Africa,also known as “BRICS”,stand out,having increasingly influence in regional issues.Some regional small and medium-sized developing countries are also progress,that Thailand is one of the best.At the mean time Thailand making its own development,Thailand began to assume its responsibility for regional development and gradually provided development assistance to neighboring countries,in which Laos became Thailand's largest recipient of aid.There was little concern about the cooperation between small and medium-sized countries in South-South cooperation,and this thesis attempts to explore it.Thailand's development cooperation with Laos has its distinctive characteristics.First,Thailand has established the "Bamboo in the wind" policy as its diplomacy strategy,flexibly using multilateral frameworks and soft power to enhance its regional influence.Thailand is also state outright that development cooperation is one of its diplomatic tools and come out the " diplomacy development".Secondly,King Bhumibol's "sufficient economy" thought influenced Thailand's concept of development cooperation,focusing on the basic elements of economic development and the role of knowledge in development cooperation.Finally,Thailand's development cooperation strategy is deeply influenced by geographical and cultural factors.In the aid of Laos,the cultural similarity between the two countries and the geographical relationship between Laos and Thailand has gave Thailand's development cooperation a certain advantage.However,due to structural factors such as economic strength,Thailand and Laos development cooperation also showed some disadvantages,such as the project size is generally too small,the development of cooperation efficiency is slightly lower and so on.In general,Thailand's development cooperation with Laos is a distinctive and typical South-South cooperation.Looking ahead,China's cooperation with the countries of the Mekong region has continued to deepen as China's "One Belt One Road" initiative has pushed forward,and China's aid and investment in Laos have also increased year by year.If China wants to strengthen regional influence,it needs to focus on cases that regional countries cooperate with each other.In the area of South-South cooperation,the case of cooperation between Thailand and Laos can show that although the development stages of developing countries are different and the level of development cooperation is different,the principle of South-South cooperation such as equality,mutual benefit and non-interference can be reflect.Therefore,China should attach importance to and support the consistent inclusion and diversity of South-South cooperation,so that South-South cooperation is more viable.