[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 126 (Tuesday, October 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9677-S9678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            WELCOMING HER MAJESTY QUEEN SIRIKIT OF THAILAND

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, we are going to be having a visit from a 
very important leader of a great ally, the Queen of Thailand. Her 
Majesty Queen Sirikit arrives here in Washington on Friday of this 
week.
  We know that Thailand and the United States have a shared commitment 
to peace, liberty, democracy, and free enterprise. We are very 
dependent upon that country for economic trade as well as security. 
Queen Sirikit has done a remarkable job in leading the way in 
humanitarian efforts, including in rural Thailand.
  Mr. President, we are experiencing a period of national tension as 
the United States girds itself to confront those nations and those 
faceless individuals who would threaten our prosperity, our security 
and, indeed, our very lives. However, in such times of anxiety, it is 
important that we recall that the globe is populated much more heavily 
with our friends than with our enemies and that, while we must face 
those enemies, we should also pause to honor our faithful allies.
  With this thought in mind, I take a moment to draw the attention of 
the Senate to the Government and people of Thailand whose Queen, Her 
Majesty Queen Sirikit, arrives here in Washington, D.C. on Friday, 
October 4, 2002.
  The United States enjoys a long and constructive relationship with 
the people of Thailand, dating back to 1833 when the administration of 
President Andrew Jackson negotiated and signed the Treaty of Amity and 
Commerce in which the two signatories pledged to establish ``a 
perpetual peace'' between them. That treaty, the first such that the 
United States signed with any Asian nation, commenced a 169-year period 
of amicable, mutually beneficial relations.
  Thailand and the United States enjoyed a shared commitment to peace, 
liberty, democracy and free enterprise, enabling us to cooperate both 
in the broadening and the protection of those values. Thailand is one 
of the only five countries in Asia with whom the United States has a 
bilateral security agreement. Furthermore, this country has a military 
assistance agreement with Thailand that was negotiated and signed 
following the end of the conflict in the Korean peninsula. Each year, 
our armed forces join with the Thai defense establishment in military 
maneuvers dubbed ``Cobra Gold''. These are the largest military 
exercises involving U.S. forces in the whole of the Asian continent.
  We are all aware of, and deeply regret, the pain that many of the 
Thai people have had to absorb following the recent retreat of many 
Asian economies. However, after implementing painful but necessary 
reforms, the Thai economy is clearly bouncing back, with a recovered 
currency and annual economic growth that could prove to be as high as 5 
percent his year. The U.S. remains Thailand's largest export market 
while Thailand ranks 22nd as a destiny of U.S. exports. This nation has 
an aggregate investment of almost $20 billion, while 600 U.S. 
companies, large and small, are currently doing business there.
  But I do not wish to talk solely of general U.S.-Thai relations. I 
also wish to acquaint the Senate with the splendid humanitarian work of 
Queen Sirikit, who has worked tirelessly to promote the well being of 
both Thais and non Thais alike. For the past 46 years she has served as 
President of the Thai Red Cross Society. In this capacity, she had to 
address the massive humanitarian problems posed by the influx of 40,000 
Cambodian refugees as they flooded across the Thai border to flee the 
turmoil in their country. Many of those people lived for years in the 
Khao Larn Center that she set up to shelter, feed and care for families 
with small children and unaccompanied orphans.
  Her own people have similarly benefited from Her Majesty's close 
attention. To increase the income of the country's rural families, Her 
Majesty has initiated many projects, such as the Foundation for the 
Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Techniques, better known as 
the SUPPORT Foundation. This is certainly a model for other developing 
countries as many are discovering to their cost that the early stages 
of economic development can often prompt a rush from the land to the 
city that the nascent urban economy is often unable to bear. If 
developing nations are to achieve sustainable growth, they will have to 
emulate Queen Sirikit's attention to the needs of the rural population.
  I am by no means the first person to recognize Her Majesty's 
accomplishments. She has been awarded the prestigious CERES medal by 
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Tufts 
University has honored her with an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters 
in recognition of her work for the rural poor of Thailand. Her care for 
the health of those same people has won her an Honorary Fellowship from 
Great Britain's Royal College of Physicians.
  I ask my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to join me in 
welcoming Queen Sirikit to the United States. I understand that Her 
Majesty will preside over an event at the Library of

[[Page S9678]]

Congress next Wednesday, October 9 during which the work and activities 
of the SUPPORT Foundation will also be exhibited and I look forward to 
seeing many of you there.
  I have a resolution that I hope to be able to bring up which will 
join with the House in extending the welcome of Congress to Her 
Majesty, the Queen. We look forward to discussing that with the leaders 
on both sides. And I hope to be able to address that later on.

                          ____________________