 I'm here with Ambassador, U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, Eric John. Eric, thanks for joining us. Thanks, Eric. This afternoon. Can you tell us a little bit about the outlook from Bangkok these days? You know, the headlines are sort of make everybody feel like it's a little rocky there, but what does it look like from the embassy? Well, I'd probably draw a line between political turbulence and political instability, and I think a lot of Americans, foreigners, might be confusing those two, and what you're probably going to see in the coming months is a continuance of political turbulence, which is okay. It's a democracy. I don't see this as political instability. I mean, you've got red shirts, yellow shirts, of course, but they're tip of the iceberg. But both sides of the aisle are pretty engaged democratically right now, and street demonstrations, sure, may be a little bit of violence. We hope not. It's not appropriate, but it's largely a very positive product of a democratic system. So this is sort of the democratization process, not pretty, but on the way in the right direction? Right. And, yeah, I mean, I know people will say, well, they've been at this for quite a few decades. How can they still be democratizing? But they're coming out of a coup. They're only two and a half years, less than two and a half years out of a coup. And the fact that you've got big street demonstrations on either side, you've got a very free press, you've got a judiciary that's working, a very active parliament. All the institutional gears are clicking right now. So Thailand's one of our five treaty allies in Asia. How do you see the relationship from that prism as a treaty ally? Is it, we have it right, is it, where do you think it's going in terms of? Well, I think that the treaty alliance is vital to the United States and probably underappreciated. It's not, obviously, we don't have troops on the ground stationed there like we do in Japan and Korea. So it doesn't get those types of headlines. But if you look at what we do in partnership with Thailand, we have our largest multi-lateral training exercise in Asia there every year, Cobra Gold, with six, seven thousand troops this year from the United States. It was, you know, Thailand is the basis for us to be able to provide the humanitarian assistance that we did in the tsunami that we did to Cyclone Nargis in Burma. It's, you know, a great partner for force projection beyond Thailand. They're a great ally for live fire training, for military training. They're an outstanding ally. A lot has been talked about recently in Washington about the rise of China. And some say that China's influence in Thailand has really risen and maybe even, you know, at the expense of the United States. Do you think that's fair? What should we be watching for? Well, I think we should be aware that we have competition for affection of ties. And that's fine. You know, I think competition's good. I'm confident in our ability to be able to compete. But we do have to be aware that there is competition. I think that we, you know, need to be very aggressive in demonstrating our appreciation for Thailand. We are very good at working with them on a democratic partnership and reinforcing their democracy. And, you know, I think as we look at places to make the President's pledge on doubling our exports in five years, we need to be looking to allies like Thailand, democratic allies like Thailand. And if we do that, I think that we'll stand up and measure up very well to China's inroads. Thailand was the place where ASEAN was found in 1967. But it seems like they've sort of not had the bandwidth to really be a major player in ASEAN recently. Is that a fair observation? And do you see the ties sort of reasserting their central role in regional architecture at some point? They will. I mean, it's natural for Thailand to be at the center of ASEAN. And certainly over the last few years, they've been preoccupied with domestic politics, and that happens to a lot of people, a lot of countries. And I think it's okay, you know, they'll emerge, they really are going to emerge stronger as they go through this sort of introspective period domestically. And I'd rather have them doing that and then re-emerge stronger. But they've done their homework on ASEAN, but they certainly will remain one of the core members and a leader of ASEAN. Okay. Last question. The U.S. has revised its policy posture on Burma, and the jury's sort of out on what kind of results that will get. What are the ties telling you about their perspective on Burma, and what are their reaction towards the new U.S. policy? They, you know, the ties certainly welcome a dialogue. They want the U.S. to talk to Burma. More importantly, I would look at where the Obama administration and the opposite administration line up on Burma. And, you know, both Thailand and the United States want a well-governed, transparently-governed democratic Burma at the end of this process. Both Thailand and the United States, I think, have a healthy skepticism about the elections that are supposed to take place this year because the Burmese have done anything but transparent about it. And, you know, it's important that we continue a very healthy dialogue with Thailand about the developments in Burma, but I, you know, the ties aren't unrealistic and they're not overly optimistic, in my opinion, about where, you know, this process this year for Burma on elections and like us, I think, are maintaining a healthy skepticism on it. You know, I think the most important part for you Americans when they're looking at Thailand is to remember that, you know, they are, it's a vibrant democracy and it can be messy sometimes, but they're a very important economic partner. They're an important cultural partner historically. And, you know, you look at Thailand and you see a country that where on the individual and on the state level, they really want to be a close friend and partner of the United States. And it's, you know, that type of friendship is something we really should put a lot of value on. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.