• Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Thai counterpart Paetongtarn Shinawatra in Bangkok on April 3. 

​• This was their second meeting. Earlier, the two leaders had met on the sidelines of ASEAN related Summit in Vientiane in October 2024.

​• The two leaders reviewed the entire range of bilateral cooperation between India and Thailand. 

​• India and Thailand decided to elevate their relations to the level of  ‘Strategic Partnership’.

Highlights of the meeting:

​• PM Modi and Shinawatra witnessed the exchange of the Joint Declaration on the Establishment of India-Thailand Strategic Partnership. 

​• They also witnessed exchange of MoUs in the fields of handlooms and handicraft; digital technologies; Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs); and maritime heritage. 

​• Both leaders also welcomed the establishment of an India-Thailand Consular Dialogue, which will further facilitate people-to-people contacts between the two countries. 

​• They discussed ways to further strengthen political exchanges, defence & security partnership, strategic engagement, trade & investment and people-to-people ties. 

​• While doing so, they underlined the need to enhance connectivity, health, science & technology, startup, innovation, digital, education, culture and tourism collaborations. 

​• They also discussed ways to deepen cooperation for countering transnational organised crimes including human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, and cyber scams. 

​• The leaders discussed ways of forging closer cooperation in sub-regional, regional and multilateral fora, including BIMSTEC, ASEAN and Mekong Ganga Cooperation.

​• National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar were also present at the bilateral talks where the agencies of the two countries also agreed to collaborate closely to combat human trafficking and illegal migration.

India-Thailand bilateral relations

• India and Thailand share a maritime boundary in the Andaman Sea. 

• India’s bilateral relations with Thailand are rooted in history, age-old social and cultural interactions and extensive people to people contacts. The shared link of Buddhism is reflected in regular pilgrimages to places of Buddhist interest in India by a large number of Thai people.

• Thailand, which aspires to be a regional hub given its central location in South East Asia, initiated a ‘Look West’ policy in 1997. The ‘Look West’ policy of Thailand complements India’s ‘Look East’ policy, which is now elevated to ‘Act East’ policy and has provided the basis for a substantive elevation of bilateral relations. Thailand also launched its ‘Act West’ policy in 2016.

• The strategic location of Thailand at the heart of South East Asia makes it the gateway to ASEAN as the region has integrated into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). In ASEAN region, Thailand is the fourth largest trading partner of India after Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

• Thailand plays an important role in various regional and sub-regional groupings. It is, therefore, an important partner for India in the India-ASEAN Summit Level Partnership, the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC), Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS). 

• Both countries celebrated the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2022.

Defence cooperation

• The MoU on Defence Cooperation between India and Thailand was signed in January 2012. Since 2015, India has participated in Ex-Cobra Gold, the largest Asia Pacific Military exercise as ‘Observer Plus’ category. Bilateral exercises are held annually between the armed forces of both countries. 

• The other ongoing defence cooperation initiatives comprises of bi-annual joint maritime patrolling by the navies of both countries, annual staff talks, subject matter expert exchange visits and training of officers at each other’s institutions. 

Trade relations

• Thailand views India as the gateway to South Asia and beyond. As a result of the reduced tariff rates and new initiatives adopted by both the countries, trade between two countries increased manifold in recent years.

• As per the Department of Commerce of India, during the period FY 2023-2024, Thailand was the 21st largest trading partner of India with total bilateral trade of around $14.94 billion. 

• Investment from Thailand in India has increased in recent years. Thai investments are mainly in infrastructure, real estate, Agro processing, electronics, automotive, food processing sectors, hotel hospitality sector and renewable energy sector.

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