Brunei And Thailand Cement Closer Ties As Foreign Ministers Meet

Bangkok - Brunei Foreign Affairs Minister His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah met with his Thai counterpart Dr. Surakiart Sathirathai for the first meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation between Brunei and Thailand yesterday.

The meeting was held in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and spirit of friendship. Both ministers also sealed the agreed minutes of the joint commission on behalf of their respective governments.

Prior to their official meeting, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Brunei and Thailand met briefly on a personal basis

The Brunei-Thai Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation was incepted in 1999 to be the primary mechanism to oversee all aspects of bilateral cooperation and to coordinate activities between various ministries and agencies of both sides.

In his opening speech, the Prince said relations between Brunei and Thailand went back a long way in some cases over 100 of years.

In view of this it is considered an important part of the history of both countries more so as the relations are now in a more formal basis working together as close neighbours in the region.

The result, the Prince said has been a tremendous amount of very valuable cooperation, both Brunei and Thailand have strong ties in defence, education, information and broadcasting and the extremely important area of trade and investment.

The convening of the first Joint Commission meeting was very timely for both countries to strengthen relations in all areas of cooperation.

The Prince thanked Dr. Sathirathai for his personal efforts to get the joint commission to the current stage.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sathirathai in his remarks said the meeting translated the spirit of cooperation between both countries into concrete results.

Since this was the first meeting of the joint commission, the task is to lay a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation in various areas within the framework.

Dr. Sathirathai expressed his pleasure in noting that both sides have been able to identify several areas of cooperation ranging from security to trade and investment particularly tourism, education and cultural affairs.

The meeting was behind closed doors and culminated for the signing of the agreed minutes, which identified seven areas of cooperation in the fields of defence, trade, investment, human resource development, information and cultural affairs.

On defence both sides agreed to promote cooperation and training human resource development and exchange of visits.

Regarding trade, Brunei and Thailand agreed to intensify efforts to increase the volume of bilateral trade by the private sector through the establishment of business councils in their respective countries.

Halal food production and Islamic banking are other areas that were agreed should be further explored.

It was also agreed that both countries establish a sub-committee on labour cooperation under the joint commission for mutual benefit.

Greater efforts should be taken to make better use of technical cooperation programmes in promoting better understanding between Brunei and Thailand.

Both ministers expressed their determination to further enhance the existing close ties and friendship and look into new areas of cooperation for mutual benefit.

Following the meeting, His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah and Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Zariah attended a luncheon hosted by Dr. Surakiart Sathirathai, Thai Foreign Affairs Minister and wife at the Oriental in Bangkok.

In the afternoon, His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah held a bilateral meeting with Lt. Col. Dr. Thaksin Shinnawtra, Prime Minister of Thailand at the Government House in Bangkok.

The Brunei delegation included the Brunei Ambassador to Thailand, Dato Haji Yunos and the Permanent Secretary, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Pehin Dato Awang Lim Jock Seng.

Brudirect.com