On 1 June 2015, General Tanasak Patimapragorn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended the 2015 OSCE-Asian Conference in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The Meeting was co-hosted by Mr. Yun Byung-se, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea, and Mr. Didier Burkhalter, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation, with participants from OSCE participating countries and various international organizations.
         After a brief discussion with the Korean and Swiss Foreign Ministers, as well as Mr. Lamberto Zannier, Secretary-General of the OSCE, before the meeting. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered a Keynote Speech at the opening ceremony, emphasizing the importance of enhancing cooperation between OSCE and Asia in managing regional and global security challenges. Areas of cooperation cited include (1) promoting inclusive development to counter extremism (2) sharing of experiences and best practices in disaster risk reduction between OSCE and regional disaster-preparedness centers, such as the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) in Bangkok (3) stepping up cooperation to fight human-trafficking and irregular migration, which Thailand has adopted a 5-P approach to counter human-trafficking (Prosecution and Law Enforcement, Protection and Recovery, Prevention, Policy, and Partnership). He added that, Thailand, as the only ASEAN member country in the forum, stands ready to serve as a bridge between OSCE and ASEAN, as well as Asia as a whole. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs also reiterated Thailand’s readiness to host the OSCE-Asian Conference next year.
         The theme for this year was “The Changing Global Security Environment and Visions of Multilateral Security Co-operation in Asia”. The meeting comprised of 3 main sessions, namely “Session one -Evolving threats and their implications for security in Europe and Asia”, “Session two - Areas of cooperation” and “Session three - Visions for Security Co-operation in Asia: Experience Sharing and New Co-operation Areas”. Mr. Suriya Chindawongse, Deputy Director-General of Department of ASEAN Affairs, was selected as a panelist in the 3rd session. The ROK also hosted a special session on “North-East Asia Peace and Confidence and Security Initiative (NAPCI) and the OSCE’s experience in Confidence and Security Building Measures” to discuss ways to promote the ROK and OSCE cooperation in peace-building in North-East Asia.
         The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is a forum for political dialogue which focuses on conflict prevention and crisis management, with 57 participating states and 11 Partners for co-operation (6 from Mediterranean and 5 from Asia, namely Thailand, Japan, the ROK, Australia, and Afghanistan). The OSCE-Asian Conference is an important annual forum to promote cooperation and experience-sharing between OSCE and Asian partner countries. Thailand, together with Serbia, the Chair of Asian Contact Group for 2016, will host the next meeting in 2016. The last OSCE-Thailand Conference was held in Chiang Mai in 2012.