On 25 February 2013, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra arrived at the National Assembly to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony of Madame Park Geun-hye, the new and first female President of the Republic of Korea. Invitationfor the Thai Prime Minister to attend her presidential inauguration ceremony as a special guest reflects strong ties between the two countries.

Following the inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Yingluck traveled to the presidential residence (Blue House) to pay a courtesy call on and have a bilateral meeting with the new President of the Republic of Korea. Prime Minister Yingluck was the first foreign leader to meet with the new President after her official assumption of the office. Gist of the meeting is as follows:

Prime Minister Yingluck congratulated Madame Park Geun-hye, the first female president of the Republic of Korea, and expressed her pleasure to be able to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony. She also reaffirmed close relations between the two countries as “strategic partners” on political, economic, and social dimensions, and Thailand’s intent to continue with all the cooperation and agreements made during President Lee Myng-bak’s administration. President Park, in turn, thanked PM Yingluck for her participation at the presidential inauguration ceremony, and was pleased with cordial relations between the two countries in all dimensions and levels. She also expressed readiness to continue with “strategic partnership” as agreed earlier.

Both leaders were pleased with the roles of women nowadays that were increasingly acknowledged and empowered both in political, economic, and social aspects. As female leaders, President Park and Prime Minister Yingluck came to terms on further development of women’s quality of life, rights, and empowerment to ensure more opportunities for them. On this occasion, Prime Minister Yingluck mentioned the Thai Women Empowerment Fund with an intention to discuss and exchange views on the capacity building and remedy of disadvantage women.

President Park affirmed that the current Government of South Korea had also policies on women empowerment and development such as financial support on child rearing in order to ensure women’s well-being which would eventually lead to national development and mobilization.

On economic cooperation and relation, both leaders agreed to push forward the feasibility study of Economic Partnership Agreement between the two countries and expansion of trade to reach the value of 30,000 million US Dollars within the year 2016. Mutual investment would also be promoted and expanded particularly South Korean investment in Thailand where there were still plenty of opportunities in the sectors of automobile, steel, energy, and infrastructure. This would be in line with Thailand’s aim to be ASEAN’s and the regional connectivity hub.

In addition, with South Korea’s considerable experiences and success in water management, PM Yingluck also extended her official invitation to the new South Korean President to attend the 2nd Asia-Pacific Water Summit (2nd APWS) hosted by Thailand in May 2013. President Park expressed her interest and agreed to attend the Summit if time permitted.

After the bilateral meeting with President Park Geun-hye, Prime Minister Yingluck and the delegation left the presidential residence for Seoul Airbase military airport to travel to Hong Kong SAR. She arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport at 1800hrs of the same day.