Drug summit aim for China, Thailand

Zhu (L) has offered to hold a drug summit in the southern Chinese city of Kunming

By Bangkok Bureau Chief John Raedler

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji left Thailand on Tuesday after a four-day visit -- his last stop on a tour of five Asian nations.

His offer to host a summit aimed at suppressing the flow of illegal drugs out of the "Golden Triangle" appears to have been the substantive highlight of his time in Thailand.

The idea of a summit -- involving China, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) -- was put to Zhu by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The Chinese Premier agreed with the idea -- and went one step further.

"If such a meeting is to be held," the Chinese delegation's spokeswoman told reporters, "then China would like to play host to such a meeting in (the southern Chinese city of) Kunming."

Laos and Myanmar still have to agree to join the Prime Ministerial-level summit but that is considered highly likely.

If they do it would be the first time these four nations have met at such a high level to discuss the menace of illegal drugs.

Opium for heroin trade

No date for the meeting has yet been proposed.

The "Golden Triangle" -- a remote mountainous area where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, in the shadow of China -- has long been a major source of opium poppy for the world's heroin trade.

But as production of opium poppy has declined there in recent years, the "Golden Triangle" has exploded as a manufacturing center for methamphetamine.

This easy-to-produce, cheap synthetic drug has already had a devastating impact in countries like Thailand, where it is considered worse than the heroin scourge ever was.

The Zhu-Thaksin drug summit idea has been praised -- but also criticized as perhaps too little, too late.

"This is a problem that cries out for more action rather than more words," one western diplomat told CNN.

In an editorial Tuesday, the English language "Bangkok Post" called Zhu's offer to host the meeting "only a small step forward, when he could have done more."

"Before Kunming," the editorial went on, "China could announce a ban or strong controls on precursor chemicals used to make drugs."

The newspaper said the UN Drug Control Program had identified China and India as the main sources of ephedrine -- the key precursor chemical used to make methamphetamine.

"China is far behind Thailand, and even Burma, in controlling these substances," the editorial said.

Another important issue on the Chinese Premier's visit to Thailand concerned his agreement for China to set up a "currency swap" arrangement to offset future fluctuations in the Thai currency.

It was the collapse of the Thai baht in mid-1997 that triggered the Asian economic crisis.

The arrangement would work like a standby line of credit that Thailand could tap if the baht became unstable again.

Thailand already has such an arrangement with Japan, worth $3 billion.

The amount of the arrangement with China -- and conditions for its use -- remain to be worked out between the central banks of the two nations.

Thailand is known to want the fund to be worth $4 billion.