On 27 October 2026, Mrs. Eksiri Pintaruchi, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Dato’ Syed Mohamad Hasrin Tengku Hussin, Deputy Secretary-General (Bilateral Affairs) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, co-chaired the 10th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) of the Thailand-Malaysia Committee on Joint Development Strategy for Border Areas (JDS) and the 16th  Senior Officials Meeting of the Thailand-Malaysia Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JC) at the Waldorf Astoria Bangkok. The Meetings were held in preparation for the Ministerial Meetings in the afternoon of the same date, to be co-chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia.

The JDS Senior Officials Meeting took note of the progress in the implementation of the JDS Strategic Plan 2024-2027, which focuses on enhancing connectivity, ensuring competitiveness and enriching human capital in the border areas, and agreed that the relevant agencies of both sides should strengthen coordination and report project-level progress on a regular basis. Key issues discussed included infrastructure development along the five JDS linkages, the acceleration of the construction of the Su-ngai Kolok – Rantau Panjang Second Friendship Bridge project across the Golok River, the revival of the Su-ngai Kolok – Rantau Panjang railway service, the extension of operating hours of border checkpoints, linkages between special border economic zones of both countries in the rubber and halal industries, and human capital development through cooperation in education and labour.

At the JC Senior Officials Meeting, both sides reviewed the progress of bilateral cooperation in all areas since the 15th JC Meeting in 2024 as well as the outcomes of the Official Visit to Malaysia by the Prime Minister of Thailand in July 2026. Key issues discussed included: (1) political and security cooperation, such as border security cooperation under the Joint Working Committee on Security Cooperation (JWC-SC), intelligence sharing and coordinated patrols, defence cooperation, combating drug trafficking and transnational crime, and land boundary matters; (2) economic cooperation, such as efforts towards the bilateral trade target of USD 30 billion by 2027, cross-border connectivity under the Joint Ministerial Committee on Transport Cooperation (JMC), and cooperation in agriculture and fisheries, the halal industry, energy and tourism; and (3) social and cultural cooperation, such as education, public health, the environment and the integrated river basin management, as well as preparations for activities to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Malaysia in 2027.

Both Meetings endorsed their respective draft Records of Discussion and submitted them to the Ministerial Meetings for adoption. Following the Meetings, the Permanent Secretary hosted a luncheon for the Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia and the Malaysian delegation.