On 28 - 29 March 2022, Mr. Darm Boontham, Director-General of the Department of South Asian, Middle East and African Affairs, chaired the 1st Joint Working Group on Bilateral Cooperation between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to plan for the future direction and ways to enhance of Bilateral Relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia. This Working Group was co-chaired by Mr. Faisal Al-Amodi, Director-General of Department of Asian Affairs, Ministry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok.

The Working Group was attended by about 100 representatives from the Thai and Saudi Arabian public agencies to consider the draft of the “Roadmap to Strengthen Bilateral Relations between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” which will concentrate on the 3 main strategic areas of cooperation namely; political and security cooperation, economic cooperation and social and cultural cooperation. The Working Group will also consider the draft of the “Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the Establishment of the Saudi – Thai Coordination Council”. The Working Group was aimed at planning future cooperation based upon both sides’ common interests and setting up effective mechanisms for driving the bilateral relations forward, as well as pursuing tangible results after the normalization of diplomatic relations.

On this occasion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a dinner to honor the Thai and Saudi delegates at the Royal Thai Naval Institute on 28 March 2022 with Mr. Cherdkiat Atthakor, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the host.

On 29 March 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also organized a forum for the Saudi representatives to meet with representatives from the leading Thai private sector in the potential areas of cooperation such as hotels, tourism and hospitality, petrochemical, industry, food security and hospitals.