Abstract:
This thesis studies the impact of foreign aid on Lao-Thai relations. The period of study is from the year of 1975, the year that Lao became a democratic republic, through the year of 2007, the year that she celebrated her 10th anniversary of ASEAN membership. The research finds that Thai foreign aid from 1975-1991 aid not concentrate in any particular area and aid not have much impact on their relationship. The main reason came from ideological conflict of the cold war. As a result, Lao-Thai relations in this period was rather limited. The end of cold war in 1989/1991 encouraged more cooperation at international and regional level. As a consequence, Thai policy since 1992 turned to concentrate more on her neighboring countries, especially Lao, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Thai foreign aid to Lao then became one of the major instruments to promote the relationship between the two countries. Thai foreign aid to Lao from 1997 upto the present has various channels the aids in general are in two forms bilateral and multilateral through ASEAN, GMS, and ACMECS. Finally, the study concludes that with these aids, Lao-Thai relations have much improved and become stronger.
