Does anyone know if SEATO is a viable organization today? I'm sure it still exists, but had better be strengthened.
Even if it existed,what would be it's use.Among it's members Pakistan is China's oldest arms buyer & ally,Thailand is increasing it's strategic relationship with the PRC while France & Britain plan to sell arms to it.SEATO was aimed at the USSR,not the PRC.
BTW,it got dissolved in 1977.
Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States were the original signators.
SEATO has been defunct for a quarter of a century, basically because it couldn't deal with Vietnamese/Laos/Cambodia disasters.
'Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), alliance organized (1954) under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty by representatives of Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States. Established under Western auspices after the French withdrawal from Indochina, SEATO was created to oppose further Communist gains in Southeast Asia. The treaty was supplemented by a Pacific Charter, affirming the rights of Asian and Pacific peoples to equality and self-determination and setting forth goals of economic, social, and cultural cooperation between the member countries. The civil and military organizations established under the treaty had their headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand. SEATO relied on the military forces of member nations and joint maneuvers were held annually. SEATO's principal role was to sanction the U.S. presence in Vietnam, although France and Pakistan withheld support. Unable to intervene in Laos or Vietnam due to its rule of unanimity, the future of the organization was in doubt by 1973, and SEATO was ultimately disbanded in 1977.'
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2005, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
I have no idea. But Taiwan needs to be a part of SEATO along with Japan and Australia.
Upon the ill advised retreat of the US from SEA, SEATO fell apart. The core of SEATO was Thailand. In the late 1970s, under guidance from the USSR, Vietnamese troops took over Cambodia and eventually made incursions into Thailand. Lacking the once present US troops and bases, Thailand went to the PRC for help. A few months later, the PRC made an incursion into Vietnam. Thailand has, ever since, taken a path of relative neutrality vis a vis the US and the PRC. Meanwhile, the other remaining SEATO countries that did not fall to Communism during the 1970s have taken the Arabist / Islamist tack. While there has been a slight thaw more recently, none of them are reliable.