Bangkok

This year, with approximately 40,000 visas granted to Thais, the German embassy in Bangkok will surely have a “record year.” The other way round, too, the flow of tourists from Germany remains unbroken: Thailand is the favourite travel destination for Germans in Asia.

Germany’s ambassador Hanns Heinrich Schumacher confirmed this in an interview with this newspaper. “We already have far exceeded the figures from 2009 today,” said Schumacher, who sees the reasons for this in the strength of the baht over the euro and in the “tangible” intensification of economic relations following the global financial crisis.

Sixty-two year old Schumacher oversees the “by far largest embassy” in Southeast Asia. “As a focal point embassy, we are ranked number 16 worldwide of all diplomatic representations,” explained Schumacher, who was directly previously the ambassador in Bagdad and also was once Germany’s leading representative in Namibia and Finland. This is due primarily to the “enormous volume of work in the legal and consular department” – including monitoring of German-Thai partnerships – and the strong economic cooperation that has thrived between the two nations for the past 150 years. Following the major cool-down – “a minor lull is an understatement” – in political relations in the past three to four years, Schumacher now believes things are again looking up. “Yet, I cannot deny that the military coup of 2006 together with the resulting halt in contacts imposed by the entire EU and the frequent changes in governments since have not exactly made it easier to readopt relations in the same density as before,” says the father of three. Following talks by the Thai foreign minister and Prime Minister Abhisit with German foreign minister Westerwelle and Chancellor Merkel in recent months, the German Foreign Office state secretary Peter Ammon spoke during his recent visit to Bangkok of wanting to “press the reset button.” He himself hopes, after the riots of past years, that “the courts will demonstrate moderation” in the now pending proceedings against both the yellow-shirts (government loyalists) and the red-shirts (government opponents).

As for visas, the ambassador does not wish to lessen their numbers. He flatly denied rumours of rejections of massive numbers of applications by average wage earning Thais and of (approval) quotas required by Germany: “That’s complete rubbish.” The appropriate staff members grant visas strictly according to the Schengen visa code, “with great understanding and generosity.” The diplomat continues, “But the most important condition is, in truth, a clear willingness to return.” This in turn is linked to a secure, regular income and steady job and to family and financial conditions. “Our total rejection rate in Bangkok is at about five percent as in other German embassies – one of the lowest of all Schengen states in Thailand,” says Schumacher, who feels the dominant annual temperature of 30 degrees Celsius is “quite pleasant” by contrast to many other central Europeans, “who find it far too hot and miss the rhythm of the seasons.”