On 29 January 2013, South Africa hosted the South Africa-Thailand Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in Pretoria, which was co-chaired by Dr. Anil Sooklal, Deputy Director General, Asia and the Middle East, Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, and Mr. Vijavat Isarabhakdi, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand. This was the second meeting after the first SOM which took place in Bangkok in 2008.

     The agenda of the second SOM covered a wide range of issues from bilateral relations to trade and investment and development cooperation. The issues of the United Nations Security Council reform and the candidature of Thailand to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the term 2015-2017 were also discussed. However, one of the top agenda for this meeting was the upcoming official visit of the Prime Minister of Thailand to South Africa.

      During this meeting, both sides were able to agree and to push forward on many of the issues discussed. These include the expansion of trade relations, the strengthening of development cooperation, including trilateral cooperation, as well as the enhancement of people-to-people contacts between both countries. Regarding the official visit of the Thai Prime Minister to South Africa, both countries agreed on the importance of such a visit, which would be the first visit to the African region by the present Thai Prime Minister. The South African side suggested the visit should take place in June 2013.

     Thailand and South Africa also agreed to regularise the South Africa-Thailand SOM as a means to enhance the already close relations between both countries. In this regard, Thailand agreed to host the next SOM in 2014.