H.E. Mr. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, will pay an official visit to Thailand as Guest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 30 July 2019, prior to his participation in the ASEAN-Russia Ministerial Meeting on 31 July 2019.           

During his visit, H.E. Mr. Lavrov will pay a courtesy call on H.E. General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister, at the Government House and will also meet with H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 30 July 2019 to strengthen the relationship and cooperation between both countries as well as to follow up on the issues discussed during the 7^th Session of the Joint Bilateral Commission on Bilateral Relations between Thailand and Russia and the recent official visit of H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai to Russia in February this year.

The relations between Thailand and Russia have been close and cordial since the establishment of the diplomatic relations over 120 years ago and have grown to become more dynamic as reflected in regular exchanges of high-level visits. Currently, Russia is the 27^th trade partner of Thailand with over 3.5 billion USD bilateral trade volume. Last year, 1.4 million Russian tourists visited Thailand. Furthermore, both countries have a comprehensive interagency cooperation mechanism such as Joint Committee, Sub-Committee and Working Groups in various sectors, ranging from politics, economics, agriculture, finance/banking, energy, environment, tourism and military logistics.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation had visited Thailand 3 times during the past years in 2004, 2009 and 2017.