On 17 March 2014, Dr. Itti Ditbanjong, Ambassador of Thailand to the Russian Federation, together with diplomats of the Royal Thai Embassy and members of Team Thailand, hosted a reception for  Lt. Gen. Wisith Jaengprajak, National Defence College (NDC) Advisor, and the group of NDC study visit to the Russian Federation, at the residence of the Thai Ambassador. 

     On the same occasion, the Thai Ambassador gave briefing on the Thai-Russian relations, reaching its 117th anniversary this year, as well as the strength and potential of the Russian Federation. 

Russia remained one of the major powers, with vast resources and large population. Russia ranked sixth the Power Purchasing Parity and fifth in terms of foreign reserves. Russia’s economic growth was high at about 4% annually. 

     The Thai-Russia relations had long been cordial, with steady growth in bilateral trade (reaching 4,667 million US Dollars in 2013) and in number of Russian tourists to Thailand (1.7 million in 2013). The features of Thailand and Russia are also in significant complimentarity, with Thailand potentially serving as Russia’s source for food security and Russia as Thailand’s source for energy security.

     The Thai Ambassador also sought support from the NCD for possible ways forward in enhancing the bilateral relations, such as education of Thai experts on Russia in anticipation for greater number of Russian tourist and higher trade and investment volume, opening of Thai banking service in Russia to support investment of Thai business in Russia, and dissemination of business information and incentive for Thai business to invest in Russia.