Director-General of the Department of European Affairs and Deputy Director-General for Global Affairs and Principal Director for Asia and the Pacific, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy, co-chaired the 2nd Thai-Italian Political Consultations. Both sides exchanged updates on the COVID-19 situation as well as reaffirmed the importance of multilateralism as a way to address challenges. They also discussed concrete areas of cooperation, including trade and investment, particularly in the EEC, cooperation towards sustainable economic recovery through Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economic model, infrastructure, logistics, STI, and energy.

On 13 May 2021 Mrs. Chulamanee Chartsuwan, Director-General of the Department of European Affairs and Ms. Gabriella Biondi, Deputy Director-General for Global Affairs and Principal Director for Asia and the Pacific, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic, co-chaired the 2nd Thai-Italian Political Consultations via video conference. This virutal meeting was also attended by Mr. Chirdchu Raktabutr, Ambassador of Thailand to Italy, and Mr. Lorenzo Galanti, Ambassador of the Italian Republic to Thailand.

The Political Consultations is an important bilateral mechanism at the Director-General level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was held for the second time after its last convening 4 year ago. Both sides exchanged updates on the COVID-19 situation as well as reaffirmed the importance of multilateralism as a way to address challenges. Both sides discussed concrete areas of cooperation ranging from trade and investment, particularly in the EEC, cooperation towards sustainable economic recovery through Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economic model, cooperation in infrastructure and logistics, STI, energy, food and agriculture, education, culture and tourism, cooperation for development and trilateral cooperation with other countries, public health and pharmaceutical cooperation and security cooperation. In addition, the Italian side welcomed Thailand’s proposal to promote SMEs, in particular in the area of fabric and design to elevate women’s livelihood in remote areas.

Both sides also welcomed Thailand’s hosting of APEC in 2022 and Italy’s chairmanship for G20 and its co-host with the United Kingdom for COP26 this year. In this regard, Italy announced its readiness to make a financial contribution to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund as well as gave its support to Thailand in the negotiations of the Thai-EU Free Trade Agreement as well as the Thai-EU Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) to an early conclusion.

Both sides also exchanged views on regional and global issues such as ASEAN’s role vis-à-vis the situation in Myanmar, cooperation in the Asia-Europe Meeting framework and Indo-Pacific. The Thai side also expressed its readiness to host the 3rd Thai-Italian Political Consultations in Bangkok next year.