Mr. Sihasak Phuangketkeow, the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, led the Thai delegation to visit Thimphu, Bhutan, for the 2nd Thai-Bhutanese Annual Bilateral Consultations during 17 – 19 April 2014. During the visit, the Thai delegation was graciously granted a Royal
audience with His Majesty the King of Bhutan (King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck) on 18 April 2014.

This Annual Bilateral Consultations, the second one, were co-chaired by the Permanent Secretaries for Foreign Affairs of both countries (the first one was held in Bangkok in March 2013). It is considered as an important bilateral mechanism to boost relations in all areas. The agenda
covered under this 2nd Annual Consultations included, inter alia, follow-ups of the outcome of the 1st Consultations and issues pertaining to the Official Visit of the Prime Minister of Bhutan to Thailand in November 2013. Some of the salient points of the 2nd Consultations are, for example;
1. Special activities organized by both sides tocommemorate the 25th anniversary (the Silver Jubilee) of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Thailand and Bhutan. On this point, the Thai delegation expressed its appreciation for Bhutan’s initiative called “the Special
Package” designed especially for the Thai tourists to visit Bhutan during June –August 2014. The Bhutanese side was also informed of the matching cultural activities to be organized by the Royal Thai Embassy in Dhaka, i.e. the making of the commemorative stamps, Thai cultural show in Bhutan. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be coordinating closely with the Royal Bhutanese Embassy in Bangkok to jointly consider a special event to commemorate this important event some time in November 2014, the anniversary month.
 
2. The Thai Permanent Secretary also reaffirmed Thailand’s readiness to augment her technical cooperation with Bhutan in the areas in which Thailand has best practices and suits Bhutan’s development needs, especially in capacity building in agriculture, education, health, tourism and commercial aviation, etc. The Bhutanese side thanked the Thai side for past cooperation and expressed her wish to expand to other new areas, such as Information Technology, urban planning and development of Bhutan International Airport, etc.

3. On trade and investment, the Thai side informed the Bhutanese side of Thai private sector’s increasing interest in construction areas in Bhutan. To this effect, the Construction Institute of Thailand will be leading prominent members of Thai private sector to Bhutan to meet with their
Bhutanese counterparts and explore opportunities during the last week of April 2014. Both sides agreed that their respective governments need to encourage exchanges of visits between the private sectors of both sides to increase trade and investment volume, which still has a lot of
potentials for expansion considering the remarkable 66.45 % of bilateral trade volume increase in 2013 (from that of 2012) .

Both sides agreed that the 3rd Consultations be held in Thailand in 2015. The exact date, time and venue will be communicated to the Bhutanese side later on.