President Nguyen Xuan Phuc is the first foreign senior leader to visit Thailand before the 29th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting. This is his first visit to Thailand in his capacity as President and also the first trip by a senior Vietnamese leader after the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc said the visit is of important significance for both countries, marking the official resumption of mutual visits to further boost the bilateral comprehensive cooperation, especially in economy, trade, investment and tourism.
Over the past years, the two countries have witnessed remarkable strides in cooperation, particularly in economy, trade and investment. Last year, Thailand was the biggest ASEAN trade partner of Vietnam while Vietnam was the second largest trade partner of Thailand in the bloc. Thailand ranked 9th out of 139 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Positive progress has been seen in bilateral tourism, cultural links and people-to-people exchanges.
In the first half of this year, Vietnam welcomed nearly 40,000 Thai visitors while about 130,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Thailand. At present, 18 Vietnamese cities and provinces have cooperation deals with Thai localities. A big number of Vietnamese people are living and working in Thailand who have remarkably contributed to the bilateral ties.
The ongoing visit by the Vietnamese President will enable the two countries’ leaders to discuss major orientations to further improve the efficiency of trade and investment cooperation, economic connectivity, and expand coordination in new and promising areas such as digital economy, digital transformation and green economy. At the same time, it is expected to reinforce links in the fields of culture, education, sports, people-to-people exchanges and locality-to-locality cooperation, Ngoc said.
He added that the visit conveys a message about the strong determination of the two countries’ leaders to continuously promoting the Vietnam-Thailand enhanced strategic partnership, helping to strengthen ASEAN’s solidarity for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
Following the welcome ceremony, President Phuc and Thai PM Prayuth Chan-o-cha and their high-ranking delegations held talks.
