The Thai Cabinet has finally approved the contract for the procurement of the S26T class submarine from the major country on August 5th. It replaced the originally designated MTU396 engines made in Germany with CHD620 engines made by the major country, and extended the construction period by 1217 days. As of August 2025, the construction of the submarine has been completed 64%, with a total of 18 installments, and Thailand has paid 10 installments, amounting to approximately 7.7 billion THB (about 1.54 billion CNY). The remaining 40% value, about 5.5 billion THB (about 1.1 billion CNY), is still unpaid.

After confirming that it was not possible to obtain the CHD620 engine, the major country proposed using the CHD620 engine as an alternative solution. The Royal Thai Navy eventually accepted the proposal, and under the supervision of the Royal Thai Navy, it completed 200 hours of test operation. In addition, Pakistan has already received submarines equipped with CHD620 engines, which are completely problem-free.

The reason Thailand continues to implement the submarine contract is because if they do not continue to implement the contract, they will lose the previous investment, which is all penalty fees. Therefore, Thailand continues to implement the contract. Moreover, replacing the new Chinese engine can still operate normally. Additionally, Pakistan also uses Chinese engines to build submarines, and there are no problems. So what should Thailand be worried about?

In the Cambodian-Thailand War, Thailand also received some help, such as delivering some weapons, and those already sold weapons have performed well, indicating that the quality of the major country's weapons is still very good. Moreover, this submarine has also received continuous attention from the Royal Thai Navy, and all tests have been without problems. If we force to cancel the order, Thailand would suffer great losses.

At least the payment of around 200 million USD in the front has not been recovered, as this belongs to the penalty fee. Moreover, you can see that the entire submarine is only about 2.6 billion CNY, roughly less than 400 million USD, which can buy a world-class submarine, which is already very favorable. So I don't know why Thailand is hesitating, what exactly do they want to do? The major country has various tourists to play, fruits to buy, economic support, military assistance, why not buy a submarine, and it's not even a backward submarine.

Therefore, in the end, Thailand came to its senses, decided to continue paying, and continue waiting for delivery. It has completed 64%, and it is expected to take another three years to fully deliver. This is real strength. Thailand does not need to doubt, this is really a good submarine, we will not cheat Thailand, doing business is doing long-term business. If Thailand uses it well, they can place additional orders in the future.

We are not doing one-time deals, but doing century-long deals. We hope that Thailand can trust the strength of the major country. China-Thailand is one family, and this has always been the case. There have never been direct wars, everything is quietly harmonious. We hope that Thailand will not have second thoughts. We have always been loyal to our friends.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1839670285885449/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.