Visit to Thailand of Mr. Hitoshi Kimura, Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs (Talks with Key Official of Thailand)

May 6, 2008

Mr. Hitoshi Kimura, Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, now visiting Thailand, exchanged opinions with Mr. Noppadon Pattama, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand, on May 6 (Tue) for about half hour from 2:30 p.m. The outline of their talks is as follows. On the same day, Mr. Kimura paid a courtesy call on Mr. Mingkwan Saengsuwan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce.

Mr. Kimura said that he welcomed Mr. Noppadon’s visit to Japan from May 8 and that he would like to further promote Japan-Thailand relations with the new government. Foreign Minister Noppadon said he wished to develop the relationship between the two countries through his upcoming visit to Japan.
They agreed on strengthening the economic relationship between the two countries, with emphasis on the importance of continuous efforts to improve the investment environment in Thailand, through the smooth implementation of the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement which came into force last year.
Mr. Kimura said that Japan wished to tackle regional and international issues with Thailand, which will assume the ASEAN chairmanship from this summer, not limiting to bilateral relations, to which Mr. Noppadon said he hoped to cooperate closely with Japan in various fields. They also agreed to make efforts to the Mekong region through various frameworks and to enliven through next year’s Japan-Mekong Exchange Year.
They exchanged views on the situation in Myanmar (the cyclone disaster and the democratization issue), and United Nations Security Council reform; then Mr. Kimura conveyed a formal invitation of the Government of Japan to Mr. Samak Sundaravej, Prime Minister of Thailand.

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