Chinese premier's visit to further deepen Thailand-China ties, says Thai PM

BANGKOK - The upcoming visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Thailand will further deepen the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Thailand, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told Xinhua recently. 

Li is scheduled to attend the 22nd China-ASEAN (10+1) leaders' meeting, the 22nd ASEAN-China, Japan and Republic of Korea (10+3) leaders' meeting, and the 14th East Asia Summit in the Thai capital Bangkok and pay an official visit to Thailand. 

Prayut expressed his welcome to Li's visit in the written interview, adding that in recent years, the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership has continued to deepen on the basis of mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual-benefit and win-win cooperation. The two sides have witnessed frequent exchange of visits by high-ranking officials and deepened communication, which were demonstrated by the rapid delivery of key connectivity projects such as the Thai-Chinese high speed rail and the high speed rail project linking three airports in Thailand, said Prayut. 

Both Thailand and China attach great importance to infrastructure and connectivity construction and have achieved notable results in bilateral economic cooperation, Prayut added. 

Noting that as this year's rotating chair of ASEAN, Thailand has proposed the "Connecting the Connectivities" approach, Prayut said that Thailand has been striving to push forward the building of the Thai-Chinese high speed rail project and enhance the synergy between China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). 　　The Thai prime minister said that he expected China and ASEAN to reach an agreement on dovetailing the Belt and Road Initiative and the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 during their upcoming meeting in Bangkok, adding that such move will contribute to speeding up the regional connectivity process. 

He also said both countries could tap the potential of regional cooperation frameworks or initiatives such as Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism to strengthen cooperation. 

The Thai government welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest in Thailand's EEC, and will strongly support Thai-Chinese cooperation in technological innovation, e-commerce and other areas while learning from China's experience in poverty-elimination, environmental protection and smog control, said the prime minister.

Prayut said the Thai side hopes that Li's visit will further deepen the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries and boost the development of Thailand's 20-year national strategy and the "Thailand 4.0" strategy, so as to help the country better deal with the ever-changing global economic and political situation. 

On ASEAN-China ties, Prayut said the development of the strategic partnership between the two sides in the past decade has demonstrated that the relationship is the most fruitful one between ASEAN and its dialogue partners and also one of the important pillars in maintaining regional peace, stability, prosperity and sustainable development.

ASEAN and China have deepened cooperation and realized mutually beneficial and win-win results in various fields this year, including connectivity, smart cities, and people-to-people exchanges, which are priority areas defined in the China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership Vision 2030, he said.

Prayut said that Thailand believes that China will support ASEAN in community building, support ASEAN's central role in regional cooperation and its bigger role in building an open and inclusive regional cooperation framework.