On 26 September 2019, H.E. General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand met with Mr. Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General at the United Nations Headquarters, New York. The Thai Foreign Minister, H.E. Don Pramudwinai, also attended the meeting. 

The Prime Minister and the UN Secretary-General exchanged views on various issues of global significance which are today’s challenges, including climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN peacekeeping operations. The Prime Minister expressed Thailand’s readiness to support the works of the United Nations and the UN reform, initiated by the UN Secretary-General, to make the organization more effective, more efficient and more responsive to current global challenges.  

The UN Secretary-General praised Thailand for her UN-related roles, particularly in the work on sustainable development guided by the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP), the knowledge and experience Thailand could share with other countries. He looks forward for Thailand’s membership to the UN Economic and Social Council which will begin in 2020. 

The Prime Minister, furthermore, extended an invitation to the UN Secretary-General to attend the ASEAN-UN Summit in November in Bangkok.