Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin (left) inspect the guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at Government House in Bangkok on Monday, April 29, 2024. - AFP
BANGKOK (Bernama): As Thailand and Brunei commemorate their 40th anniversary in diplomatic relations this year, the two nations are looking forward to further strengthening the bilateral cooperation and bolstering economic cooperation.
In a joint statement, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and Brunei King, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, expressed satisfaction with the long-standing cordial relations and reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening cooperation in mutually beneficial areas such as political cooperation, economic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, climate change and regional development.
"Both countries reaffirmed commitment to deepen cooperation in trade, investment, halal industry, tourism, digital economy and people-to-people exchanges through existing bilateral mechanisms, including the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC), the second session of which will be hosted by Brunei this year," said the leaders today.
The leaders also expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the visit and urged relevant agencies to fully utilise existing bilateral mechanisms to ensure concrete implementation.
Sultan Hassanal, who arrived here Sunday (28 April), was on a two-day official visit to Thailand on invitation by Srettha. During the official visit, the Sultan is accompanied by Pengiran Muda Abdul Mateen Bolkiah.
Meanwhile, for the economic cooperation between the two nations, the leaders have agreed to continue working closely to promote economic cooperation - focusing on trade, food security and halal cooperation, tourism, investment and the digital economy.
Srettha and the Sultan of Brunei also agreed to promote closer bilateral trade relations by establishing a mechanism at the policy level to determine concrete action plans for promoting bilateral trade and economic cooperation and tasked the relevant agencies to discuss the matter further.
The leaders reiterated the importance of Halal Industry cooperation through the close coordination between the Thai Halal Industry Center under the Industry Ministry of Thailand and the relevant agencies of Brunei, such as the Ministry of Finance and Economy; Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism; and Ministry of Religious Affairs.
"In this regard, both leaders also agreed to explore a Memorandum of Understanding on Halal Industry and Halal Export Development and Promotion to further deepen cooperation in this area," the joint statement said.
Earlier, both leaders also witnessed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) being signed - of which one is between Thailand’s Government Pension Fund (GPF) and Brunei Investment Agency (BIA); and the second MoU was on Tourism Cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand and the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism of Brunei Darussalam.
The leaders also encouraged more exchanges of visits between the government and private sectors at all levels to maintain the positive momentum in bilateral relations. - Bernama
