Statement to the Press by H.E.Yingluck Shinawatra at the Joint Press Conference with the Prime Minister of New Zealand
Statement to the Press
by
Her Excellency Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
at the Joint Press Conference with the Prime Minister of New Zealand
Government House, Auckland
22 March 2013
The Right Honourable John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand,
Excellencies, Distinguished Members of the Media,
I am delighted to be here on my first Official Visit to New Zealand and I wish to thank Prime Minister Key for the warm hospitality extended to me and my delegation.
For almost six decades, our two countries have developed close and mutually beneficial relations. My visit today follows a year of increased high level contacts between our two countries, as fellow democracies with a firm commitment to human rights and goals of promoting closer cooperation within our region. I fully share the sentiments of Prime Minister Key in describing Thailand and New Zealand as being close friends and ‘natural partners’. Our earlier discussions reaffirmed this.
Building on the Thailand-New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership (TNZCEP), we looked forward to doubling our trade volume within the next 5 years. To this end, I have brought with me a large business delegation to help promote greater bilateral trade and investment.
We have signed the Joint Statement on the Education Partnership that will enhance our cooperation in vocational training, and a Letter of Intent to enhance cooperation in science, technology, research and innovation. These initiatives will strengthen our mutual competiveness and people-to-people linkages. We also explored other areas of cooperation, from agro-industry to tourism to culture including the audio-visual industry.
We both attached importance to closer bilateral cooperation to address common security challenges.Some of these include transnational crime and threats to maritime security. We also support building effective regional arrangements, such as the EAS (East Asia Summit) and APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), to promote our shared regional interests.
In this connection, I commend New Zealand for being an active Dialogue Partner of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) that helps promote regional stability and progress. I also welcome New Zealand’s commitment to multilateral cooperation, which Thailand shares. I hope that our two countries can work more closely together on global issues. We welcomed the expression of support by New Zealand on Thailand’s candidature for a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the term 2017-2018.
To conclude, I am very pleased with this visit. I believe that, working together, we have strengthened the partnership between Thailand and New Zealand. This will benefit not only our two peoples but also the Asia-Pacific as a whole. I also extended an invitation for Prime Minister Key to visit Thailand so that we may take this partnership forward further. I also expressed my appreciation for the best wishes extended to His Majesty the King of Thailand.
Thank you.