Jets for Chickens

Swedish PM Rejects Jets-For-Chicken Trade

The Swedish government cannot negotiate a deal with Thailand to trade jet fighters for raw chicken meat, Prime Minister Goeran Persson said Thursday.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who met with Persson in the Swedish capital Thursday, told Thai media earlier this week he hoped to broker a poultry-for-planes deal with Sweden, as his country’s chicken exports have suffered badly from a bird flu outbreak.

Thailand Offers Chickens for Russian Arms

Thailand, its huge poultry industry stricken by bird flu, wants to pay for Russian weaponry with chickens, the Reuters news agency quoted the country’s prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as saying.

Thaksin gave no hint on whether warplanes were on his Moscow shopping list, but Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported on Wednesday that Bangkok wanted to buy at least six Sukhoi Su-30s worth $200 million.