In today’s turbulent world, nations need to be prepared. Thailand has joined the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR), a United States-led coalition of 16 nations aimed at strengthening defense industrial cooperation and supply chain resilience, including the production of missiles and drones.

The group welcomed Thailand as its 15^th member and the United Kingdom as its 16^th during its second meeting, held virtually on March 18. Thailand is the oldest treaty ally of the U.S. in Asia, and the two nations cohost the annual Cobra Gold multilateral military exercises, the largest such exercises by the U.S. in Asia. The Kingdom and the U.S. have a close and cooperative relationship on security issues.

The U.S. has said its policy is to shift its economic and security focus to the Indo-Pacific region. Recent conflicts in the Europe and the Middle East, however, have provided lessons about interoperability and the need for defense production capabilities and supply chains to be aligned.

Thailand is not a major weapons manufacturer, but its supply chains have proven to be solid, remaining up and running during the COVID-19 pandemic and other global crises.

Other members of the Partnership are Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

Along with senior officials, national armaments directors also attended the meeting. They said the Partnership would work to address capacity shortfalls and strengthen resilience in the global defense industrial base.

A statement from the U.S. Department of War said members “agreed to deepen integration across defense supply chains, reduce regulatory barriers and expand forward sustainment capabilities while accelerating the production of key military systems and components.”

The Department of War added that the “PIPIR continues to make tangible progress toward addressing barriers and accelerating defense industrial collaboration to promote a stronger, more resilient, more integrated defense industrial base.”