BANGKOK — The Thai government Tuesday delayed a decision to let US space agency NASA use a military air base for climate study after the main opposition party claimed, among other things, that it was tantamount to a surrender of sovereignty. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had asked to use the U-Tapao air base, in southeast Thailand, built by the United States for its forces to use during the Vietnam War. “NASA will have to call off the program this year, which is a shame for weather monitoring technology in Thailand,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said. The NASA project may have fallen foul of internal Thai politics: the opposition Democrats are also claiming the government had agreed to the deal in return for the United States' granting a visa to exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the brother of current premier Yingluck. Kristin Kneedler, a US embassy spokeswoman, denied any such agreement. — Reuters
