Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Thailand attends 3rd Bilateral Consultations

Newsdesk: On 14 March 2023, H.E. Mr. Sarun Charoensuwan, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and H.E. Mr. Masud Bin Momen, Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh co-chaired the 3rd Bilateral Consultations held in Dhaka. H.E. Mrs. Makawadee Sumitmor, Ambassador of Thailand and other senior officials of both sides also attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed wide ranges of cooperation issues such as security and defence, trade and investment, connectivity, agriculture and agro processing, ICT, tourism and culture, consular affairs and regional cooperation.

Both sides commended the positive growth in bilateral trade which has now reached 1.2 billion USD and the increase of people-to-people relations reflected by the current 30 direct flights a week between Bangkok and Dhaka. After the meeting, the Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh exchanged Diplomatic Notes to confirm the amendment of Air Services Agreement signed in 1978. The revised frequency of flights for passengers and cargo will enable Thailand and Bangladesh to have closer contact and more facilitated means for the transport of goods.

The Bilateral Consultations is a consultative mechanism between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and Bangladesh to follow up the progress of cooperation and discuss new initiatives. On this occasion, a group of Thai business delegation in the sectors of energy, medical service, beverage, machinery, herbal product and cleaning chemicals accompanied the Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Thailand to explore the possibility of forging business cooperation with Bangladeshi counterparts. A business matching session was organized in the afternoon of 14 March 2023 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh with briefing presentations from BIDA and BEZA.