Anutin is confident that negotiations on US taxes will succeed and revealed they are close to completion. He emphasized that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs understands how Thailand should maintain its status and urged the Thai community not to worry about the Thai-Cambodian border. He also explained that relations with Myanmar are good and that gas concession expansions are underway.
On 24 September 2026, reporters reported that at 10:30 a.m. on 23 September (local time in New York City, which is 11 hours behind Thailand) Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, said during a meeting with the Thai community at Wat Buddha Thai Thavornvanaram in New York, United States, regarding the US tax negotiations, that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Supachai Sutthumpan is currently negotiating and is confident it will succeed; there is no way it will fail. , Thailand exports goods to the US worth 125 billion US dollars and has a trade surplus of nearly 70 billion US dollars. If we reject to protect other interests, causing other goods to fail in sales, what benefit would that bring? The US is a superpower.
Therefore, Thailand must try to find acceptable terms. Now, only dignity remains at issue—not buying and selling. If told that if they are enemies with a country, you must be too, then we will not accept that. These points are final discussion matters, and the negotiations are now near completion.
"If they have no us, they will also struggle because key products come from Thailand. China also trades with us. We must coexist; we cannot side with one because we are not powerful enough to stand alone. Therefore, be confident that our country, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, knows well how we should maintain our status, and our country has used this context for its continuous development."
Additionally, the Prime Minister addressed tensions with neighboring countries, urging the public not to worry. He affirmed there is no violence requiring confrontation. Regarding any news, regardless of source, he said that if anyone has relatives near the border, there is no need to worry about anyone causing harm or territorial loss because sovereignty is fully protected. Now, only the timing of readiness for negotiations remains. Thailand will set the negotiation conditions because it was threatened by war weapons fired at our people. We have responded to fully protect sovereignty, which has brought relative calm to the situation.
The 2001 MOU has been canceled and will be replaced with a new agreement when neighbors are ready to negotiate. Since these are neighboring countries and ASEAN members, they must eventually negotiate. He emphasized everything is normal and there is no cause for concern. Meanwhile, relations with Myanmar are good, evidenced by cooperation on gas fields and expanding PTT's concession.
"Thailand is like the handle of a sword, and in the Gulf of Thailand, shaped like a 'K' in Thai script, there is already abundant gas. Since Cambodia refuses to conclude with us, we continue extracting our share daily. Resources flow from high to low areas. They should quickly settle with us to share, but if they don’t, we will keep extracting because we currently use this source as our natural gas energy. Additionally, a natural gas field of similar size to that in the Gulf of Thailand was recently found in the Andaman Sea, which can supply us for another 50-60 years. This confirms Thailand’s energy security."
