On 4 April 2016, H.E. Mrs. Sabine Sparwasser, Director General for Africa, Asia, Latin America, Near and Middle East, the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs, during her visit to Thailand to attend the 1^st Thai-German Bilateral Political Consultation.

            Both sides were pleased with the dynamic relations between Thailand and Germany. During the discussion, the Minister informed Mrs. Sparwasser of the recent development in Thai politics, including the publication of the draft Constitution prior to the referendum in August 2016. The Minister also reiterated Thai government’s commitment to pursuing various reforms, in order to lay down the strong political structure for the future, and reaffirmed that the government attached great importance to the freedom of speech, but it should not lead to social division. On this occasion, Mrs. Sparwasser handed the letter from the Federal Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany inviting the Minister to attend the Conference on Connectivity for Commerce and Investment, which will be held in Berlin on 18-19 October 2016. In the same occasion, the Minister invited the Foreign Minister of Germany to attend the OSCE – Asia Conference, and the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting, scheduled to be held later this year in Thailand. Mrs. Sparwasser also stressed that EU maintains strong interest in elevating EU-ASEAN cooperation to the level of strategic partnership and for the EU to participate in the East Asia Summit in the future.

         Afterwards, Mrs. Sparwasser co-chaired the first-ever Thai-German Bilateral Political Consultation with H.E. Mr. Panyarak Poolthup, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both sides enjoyed a fruitful and open discussion on ways to further expand Thai-German bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and agreed that cooperation in the areas of economic, trade, education and renewable energy has potentials for further improvement. Moreover, both sides also exchanged views on the situations in Asia-Pacific and Europe. Mrs. Sparwasser expressed her interests on the situation in the South China Sea and the political development in Myanmar, as well as sharing Germany’s view on sustainable solution to the European migration crisis, through distinguishing between migrants and refugees as well as promoting cooperation with partners outside the European Union, namely, Russia, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.