On 9 October 2014, a bilateral meeting was held between Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Deputy Foreign Minister and Dato Zainudin Hamzah, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia during the 14th Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers Meeting in Perth, Australia.

Both sides exchanged views on various issues of mutual interest, as well as in the ASEAN framework, such as scheduling for the proposed official visit to Malaysia of Thailand’s Prime Minister, and the preparation for the 6^th Annual Consultation between the two countries’ leaders, the 13^th Meeting of Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JC) and the 4^th Meeting on Joint Development Strategy for Border Areas (JDS).

On IORA, both deputy foreign ministers were of the view that both countries should work together to advance IORA’s cooperation, in particular in bringing the “blue economy” into a more concrete action. In this connection, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Thailand proposed that the two countries could invite other ASEAN member states and interested countries to support their enterprises to jointly invest in the energy sector in Western Australia.