On 8 May 2015, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Commonwealth of Australia, paid an official visit to Thailand at the invitation of H.E. General Tanasak Patimapragorn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand.

During the bilateral meeting held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia extended well wishes for the good health of Their Majesties the King and Queen and thanked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs for his kind invitation.  She also reiterated Australia’s support for Thailand in moving forward to democracy and stability and to share experiences and best practices on political reform process by sending experts to visit Thailand.  In addition, Australia will send representatives to attend the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean to be hosted by Thailand on 29 May 2015.

Both sides discussed ways to promote Thailand-Australia long-standing relations and close cooperation such as defense, expansion of bilateral trade volume and investment, and education. Both sides agreed to have deeper cooperation on anti-human trafficking under the Bali Process and Australia-Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons (AAPTIP). Regional and multilateral issues such as ASEAN and ASEAN-Australia Relations were also discussed.

The Thai side wished to work together with Australia in elevating bilateral relations to the level of “Comprehensive Partnership” to cover all areas of cooperation. On the economic front, both sides agreed to increase the two way trade volume. At present, Thailand invested around 6.1 billion USD in Australia while Australian investment in Thailand is around 2.8 billion USD. Thailand and Australia hoped to increase trade volume by 20 % to 19 billion USD within 2017 as agreed under the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA).  Thailand and Australia will organize activities to celebrate 10th anniversary of TAFTA this year.

Both Foreign Ministers jointly presided over the inauguration ceremony of the New Colombo Plan which is Australia’s initiative to promote exchanges and understanding of Thailand and Indo-Pacific region among Australian students.  In 2015, there will be 161 Australian students studying in Thailand under this program.