A meeting room of less than 10 square meters is filled with lots of Chinese material published by Thai publishers, with representations of traditional Chinese auspicious animals, and with tea sets in Chinese style. All are accompanied by dozens of photos of Korn Dabbaransi with Chinese politicians.

Korn Dabbaransi, the President of the Thai-Chinese Friendship Association, walks into the meeting room with a vigorous stride and warmly welcomes every visitor there, wearing self-designed clothes carrying the word “friendship” in Chinese.

Entering politics in 1974, Dabbaransi first served as the secretary to Thailand Foreign Minister Chatichai Choonhavan. A year later, Dabbaransi visited China with Choonhavan. Dabbaransi succeeded Choonhavan as president of the Thai-Chinese Friendship Association in 1998. He has had close ties with China for about 40 years since he became a politician in Thailand.

"I have been to China hundreds of times since 1975, visiting former presidents and prime ministers..." Dabbaransi is very happy to share his stories of China with his visitors. "Mao Zedong had great personal charisma, Zhou Enlai was the most brilliant diplomat I have ever seen, and former Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping is a doer."

Dabbaransi recalls the time during his visit to China as Thai vice Premier, when former China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji offered him a welcome that went beyond standard protocol. Zhu said to him: "I am meeting you not because you are vice premier of Thailand, but because you are an old friend of China." Dabbaransi was so moved by these words that they are still fresh in his memory.

As a badminton lover, Dabbaransi is familiar with three generations of coaches and athletes since the foundation of People's Republic of China, including Li Yongbo and Lin Dan. For 55 years Dabbaransi has played badminton three times a week, two hours per session. It is this habit that makes him a strong and quick-thinking man. His visitors can hardly believe that he is around 70.

Dabbaransi repeatedly makes the observation that "onlookers read history but I write history". As a politician, Dabbaransi witnessed and experienced the developments in relationships between Thailand and China along with international affairs after the World War.

Dabbaransi is worried about South China Sea disputes.

"China is a neighbor of ASEAN countries and always has been. It is the countries involved that understand what is happening in this area. These disputes cannot be solved through external intervention," he says.

"We should learn to understand each other, to co-exist peacefully and to create more wealth for people in this region instead of more trouble," says Dabbaransi, knocking on his desk. "Remember: any regional dispute here is invited by the Back to Asia strategy of the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet."

Friends in Thailand including Dabbaransi think highly of the "21st century maritime silk road" proposed by China's President Xi Jinping. They regard it as an opportunity for Thailand.

Dabbaransi says that he was invited to visit Dongguan in south China's Guangdong province and Fangchenggang in south China's Guangxi last year and he will have meetings in Nanning in Guangxi province and Chengdu in Sichuan on the theme of building the Maritime Silk Road.

"Thailand should play a leading role in ASEAN, actively participate in the construction of the maritime silk road and make its contribution to regional peace and development," says Dabbaransi.

The article is edited and translated from《泰国前副总理：泰国可在东盟带头 共建海上丝路》, source: People's Daily Online, author: Shan Chengbiao, Yang Mu