The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand hosted the 10th Thailand-New Zealand Senior Officials’ Talks on 27th July 2015 co-chaired by H.E. Mr. Norachit Sinhaseni, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and Mr. Brook Barrington, Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the New Zealand.  Both sides had amicable and fruitful discussion covering an array of issues as follows;

1. Bilateral Relations Both sides emphasized the long-standing relations and close ties between Thailand and New Zealand and reaffirmed their commitment to move forward and deepen bilateral relations and cooperation in areas such as security, trade, investment, education, science, technology, and innovation, and film cooperation.

2. Political Reform New Zealand stands ready to cooperate with Thailand with the reform process and the return to democracy by sharing New Zealand’s experience and expertise on areas of Thailand’s interest.

3. Bilateral Cooperation With this year marking the 10th anniversary of Thailand-New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership (TNZCEP), both sides emphasized the goal to double two-way trade by the year 2020 as agreed. Also Thailand and New Zealand looked forward to lessening trade barriers and further facilitating trade and investment between the two parties. New Zealand highlighted the importance of the commencement of the negotiation on trade in service, government procurement, and the promotion of trade in agricultural products. Thailand and New Zealand have had good close relations on defense and hoped that both sides resume bilateral defense cooperation soon after Thailand’s political situation returns to normalcy. In order to support people-to-people exchanges, Thailand took note of New Zealand’s proposal for Thai Airways International to increase weekly flights to New Zealand. Both sides agreed to have commemorative events to celebrate 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations in the year 2016.

4. Regional Issues Both sides also discussed and exchanged views on various topic of regional and international issues such cooperation on the IUU fishing and irregular migration. New Zealand would like to have Thailand’s support to elevate the relations of ASEAN-New Zealand to a Strategic Partnership Relations as this year marks its 40th Anniversary. Thailand praised New Zealand’s constructive contribution to the development of ASEAN and thanked New Zealand for sharing experiences on her campaign and role in the United Nation Security Council.