His Excellency Mr. Apichart Chinwanno, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led a delegation of Thai public and private sectors to visit the Republic of Cuba during 6-8 April 2016. 

            During the visit, the Permanent Secretary co-chaired, with His Excellency Mr. Marcelino Medina Gonzalez, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, the First Meeting of the Consultations between the Republic of Cuba and the Kingdom of Thailand at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba in Havana. His Excellency Mr. Apichart Chinwanno also paid a courtesy call on His Excellency Mr. Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, during which both sides discussed the strengthening of bilateral and multilateral relations between the two countries. The Permanent Secretary also took this opportunity to hand a letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand inviting the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba to pay an official visit to Thailand. Moreover, the Permanent Secretary paid a courtesy call on Her Excellency Mrs. Ileana Nunez, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment of Cuba and participated in a business seminar and a business matching meeting with Cuban private sectors. 

            A wide range of issues of mutual interest was discussed in the First Meeting of the Consultations between Cuba and Thailand. Most importantly, both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in trade and investment. The Cuban side invited Thai businesses to invest in Cuba, especially in the hotel sector as Cuba is facing a shortage of hotel accommodations for increasing   foreign tourists. The technical cooperation was another main topic of discussions, particularly the exchange of experiences and best practices in the areas of each other’s expertise; for example, health and medicine of Cuba and tourism and agriculture of Thailand. In addition, Thailand and Cuba agreed to expedite the negotiation of pending bilateral agreements. The Meeting also exchanged views on cooperation in multilateral frameworks, including the UN, and G77 of which Thailand is the current Chair.