India, Thailand ties get ‘strategic’ elevation

New Delhi: India and Thailand elevated bilateral ties to a strategic partnership during a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Paetongtarn Shinawatra in Bangkok on Thursday, ahead of the sixth BIMSTEC summit with other regional leaders.

Modi thanked Shinawatra for her government’s support in rescuing and repatriating 549 Indians from cybercrime scam centres across Thailand’s border with Myanmar. He also extended condolences on behalf of the Indian people for the lives lost in the March 28 earthquake.

“Thailand holds a special place in India’s Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific vision. Today, we have decided to strengthen our ties into a strategic partnership,” Modi said as he and Shinawatra addressed the media. “We also discussed establishing a strategic dialogue between our security agencies.”

India’s ‘Act East’ and Thailand’s ‘Act West’ policies complement each other extremely well and open several possibilities for bilateral cooperation, the PM posted on X.

The two leaders reviewed the entire range of bilateral cooperation between India and Thailand, exploring ways to enhance political exchanges, defence and security partnerships, strategic engagement, trade, investment and people-to-people ties.

They stressed the need to enhance health, science and technology, start-ups, culture and tourism collaborations. They also discussed ways to deepen cooperation for countering transnational organised crimes, including human trafficking, narcotics trafficking and cyber scams. “We believe in development and not expansionism. We welcome Thailand’s decision to co-lead the ‘Maritime Ecology’ Pillar of ‘Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative,” Modi said, sending out a message to China amid concerns over its bid to expand its geopolitical influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Thai government released a special postage stamp depicting 18th-century Ramayana mural paintings to mark Modi’s visit. Shinawatra gifted him a special edition of the Buddhist holy scripture, Tripitaka, in Pali.