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Story: Foreign policy and diplomatic representation

First SEATO meeting, Bangkok, 1955

Zoom in to see details of this series of photographs from an album produced for New Zealand's Ministry of External Affairs. They show External Affairs Minister Thomas Macdonald arriving in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1955 for the first meeting of the South East Asia Treaty Organization. SEATO arose from a collective defence treaty signed the previous year, which aimed to block communist advances in South-East Asia. SEATO was dissolved in 1977.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: Macdonald 1 1 1

by Public Relations Department, Government of Thailand

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Michael Green, Foreign policy and diplomatic representation – Alliance diplomacy, 1950s to 1970s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/34281/first-seato-meeting-bangkok-1955 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Michael Green, published 28 May 2012, updated 1 May 2016.