Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, will pay an official visit to Thailand and meet with General Tanasak Patimapragorn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday 17 March 2015. Mr. Mevlüt’s visit will be the first official one by a Turkish Foreign Minister in the past 25 years.  The invitation was extended by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs during their first meeting at the 69th United Nations General Assembly in New York last year.

Topics that will be discussed include strengthening bilateral cooperation on trade, security, technical and industrial issues, promoting cooperation in the international stage, and elevating Thailand – Turkey ties to strategic partnership. The meeting will be followed by a luncheon in honour of Foreign Minister of Turkey hosted by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

As another highlight of the visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Saranrom Institute of Foreign Affairs Foundation (SIFAF) have jointly organized a special lecture to be given by the Foreign Minister of Turkey entitled “Turkish Foreign Policy: Closer to Asia and the Pacific” at Naradhip Auditorium, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Tuesday 17 March 2015 at 14.00 - 15.00 hours.

The Kingdom of Thailand and the Republic of Turkey established diplomatic relations in 1958, thus marking 57 years of close and cordial relations between the two countries. With a population of over 75 million people and a unique location as the bridge linking Europe and Asia, Turkey is a gateway to access the markets of Central Asia, the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa. Turkey has also enjoyed a tourism boom in the recent years, with more than 37 million tourists from around the world in 2014. On the international stage, Turkey is a modernized secular state with a predominantly Muslim population with close relations to the Western world, as can be seen by the country’s longstanding membership in NATO, OSCE and the European Customs Union. Turkey is also currently involved in ongoing accession negotiations to become a member of the European Union.