Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand General Tanasak Patimapragorn has expressed his government’s keen interest for a more active and robust engagement with Bangladesh towards strengthening diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries.
He conveyed the message when Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem met him at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, said a media release on Thursday.
During the meeting, the Bangladesh Ambassador reaffirmed Bangladesh’s commitment to a closer diplomatic, trade and investment partnership with Thailand, especially given the close proximity the two countries enjoy geographically sharing extended sea linkages on the Andaman Sea with a common neighbour, Myanmar in between.
Tasneem requested the Thai Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs that Thailand, reaching the higher middle-income country status, needs to accord DFQF market access to Bangladesh for select products to offset the imbalance heavily tilted towards Thailand.
The envoy also requested the Thai Deputy Prime Minister to encourage his country’s investors to invest in Bangladesh, especially in the tourism and hospitality, power generation, food processing, automobiles, machinery, electronics, ship-building, hospital and health services industry.
Ambassador Tasneem highlighted the need for new areas of cooperation, especially finalisation and early signing between the two countries of bilateral cooperation instruments.
The instruments include on exemption of visa for diplomatic and official passports, cooperation of employment of Bangladeshi workers in Thailand, Technical Cooperation on fisheries and livestock, and between Bangladesh Accreditation Board and the Thai Industrial Standards Institute.
Referring to her recent calls on the Thai Ministers of ICT, Tourism and Sports and Industry over the past one month, the Ambassador stressed exploring new institutional cooperation between the two countries during her tenure, especially on tourism and culture cooperation, defence and security including on UN peacekeeping, and industrial and technological exchanges between public and private sectors of the two countries.
He also underscored the importance of holding the first-ever meeting of the Foreign Office Consultations at the level of Foreign Secretaries of the two countries in Dhaka early this year.
The Thai DPM also hoped that during the tenure of the Ambassador, bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Thailand would reach newer heights with visible outcomes.
