China – Thailand: Trust and Cooperation Must Be Strengthened

China and Thailand “should strengthen mutual political trust, firmly support each other, and respond to external geopolitical uncertainties with stability in their bilateral relations.” With this call, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra (pictured) at the People’s Congress House in Beijing. The visit by Thailand’s chief executive, the first since Paetongtarn Shinawatra took office in August 2024, was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Beijing and Bangkok.

Xi Jinping congratulated Thailand on becoming a partner country of BRICS, the organization originally founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and expanded in recent years with full members and official partners to more than 20 nations around the world. In this context, China and Thailand reaffirmed their willingness to strengthen multilateral engagement to protect the international order, of which the United Nations is the centerpiece and which is based on law and not on rules “set by individual countries,” as well as to “strengthen solidarity and cooperation among countries of the Global South.”

Regarding bilateral relations between China and Thailand, it was decided to promote ties between the two Asian countries, cooperate as intensively as possible in the “emerging sectors of new energy, electric vehicles, and digital economy,” cooperate in “building a more stable and flexible industrial supply chain.”

“Beijing is willing to harmonize its development strategies with Bangkok, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, implement flagship projects such as the China-Thailand railroad, and push forward the concept of developing connectivity between China, Laos, and Thailand to achieve greater results as soon as possible,” President Xi Jinping concluded.