Thailand's new foreign minister unveiled plans for his
first overseas visits and said he had decided to arrange the
tour schedule in alphabetical order.
Surapong Tovichakchaikul, whose appointment last month attracted
criticism in Thailand because of his lack of high level experience,
on Friday said he will travel to Brunei first on September 11.
The regional tour will encompass the nine other countries of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.
"I will start with Brunei as it is first alphabetically, but
Indonesia will come second because it's currently chairman of
ASEAN," he told reporters at Government House in Bangkok.
The alphabetical order will then resume with a trip to Cambodia,
on September 14, and then Laos.
He said he would visit all other ASEAN nations -- Malaysia,
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam -- within September
without giving exact dates for each country.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who took power last month
after an overwhelming win in the July 3 election, has not yet
revealed her travel schedule.
Her fledgling government has already drawn fire over a recent
visit to Japan by her brother, former leader Thaksin Shinawatra,
who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption.
Thailand's opposition says the country's new leadership
illegally helped Thaksin obtain a visa for the trip.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, addressed international
media and visited areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and
tsunami during the tour, which was seen as an attempt to return to
the world stage.