The official visit to Thailand by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc from August 17-19 is expected to deepen the two countries’ relations in various fields such as politics, security, defence, economics and trade.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) receives visiting President of the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand Pornpetch Wichitcholchai

Vietnam and Thailand established diplomatic ties in 1976. Since 1991, the bilateral rapports have strongly developed, especially after Vietnam’s engagement in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1995.

Particularly, Vietnam and Thailand elevated their relations to “strategic partnership” during the visit to Thailand by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in June 2013, becoming the first two nations in ASEAN to set up “strategic partnership”. 

The two countries later signed an action programme to implement their strategic partnership in the 2014-2018 period on the occasion of the official visit to Vietnam by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in November 2014.

Through regular delegation exchanges, Vietnam and Thailand have approved and carried out a number of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, notably the joint cabinet meeting, the joint committee on bilateral cooperation, and the deputy foreign ministerial-level political consultation.

Given the establishment of the ASEAN Community in December 2015, the countries’ leaders agreed to enhance coordination to strengthen ASEAN solidarity and cooperation as well as promote the central role of the bloc in addressing regional and global issues.

Trade and investment activities are considered a spotlight in the bilateral sound relations. Two-way trade has continuously increased in recent years from 5.78 billion USD in 2009 to 12.5 billion USD in 2016. As of April 2017, the bilateral trade reached 4.3 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 21.5 percent. Two-way trade is expected to top 20 billion USD by 2020.

Thailand is ranked 10th out of the 116 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 458 valid direct investment projects worth nearly 8.2 billion USD, mainly in the fields of processing and manufacturing industry, trade, and agro-forestry-fisheries.

The two countries have also developed cooperation in other realms such as defence-security, transport, agriculture, labour, culture, and tourism along with anti-environmental crime, military aviation, navigation, and marine patrol.

They continued strengthening coordination with Laos and Cambodia to expand roads connecting Thailand, Laos and Vietnam and marine routes linking Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam in the coming time.

Some 15 Vietnamese cities and provinces have signed cooperation or twinning ties with Thai localities.

Parliamentary friendship group hopes for stronger Vietnam-Thailand ties

Chairman of the Vietnam-Thailand Parliamentary Friendship Group Pham Dinh Toan (L) meets with President of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) of Thailand Pornpetch Wichitcholchai 

Chairman of the Vietnam-Thailand Parliamentary Friendship Group Pham Dinh Toan met on August 15 with President of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) of Thailand Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, who is on a visit to Vietnam.

Toan highly valued the visit’s significance to the Vietnam-Thailand strategic partnership as well as the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two legislative bodies. He described it as an opportunity to build trust and understanding between leaders of the two countries and parliaments.

Applauding the active and effective activities of the two parliamentary friendship groups, he said their cooperation has become an important channel of parliamentary diplomacy and a firm bridge helping to foster relations between the countries’ parliaments and people.

He expressed his hope for the NLA’s continued support for cooperation activities of the two parliamentary friendship groups to share information about issues of common concern.

At the meeting in Hanoi, NLA President Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said relations between the two legislatures have continually been reinforced.

He added that he will help the parliamentary friendship groups to step up activities since they are critical factors in the development of bilateral parliamentary ties and Vietnam-Thailand relations.

Before the meeting, the NLA delegation had paid homage to Ho Chi Minh at the late President’s mausoleum and visited the late President relic site in Hanoi.

VNA