Vice-President Ansari to visit Thailand from Feb.3

Vice-President Hamid Ansari will be visiting Thailand from February 3-5 at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand.

This is the first Vice-President level visit from India after a gap of 50 years. The Vice President will be accompanied by a high-level delegation including a Minister of State, Members of Parliament and senior officials.

During the visit to Bangkok from February 3-5, the Vice-President is expected to have an Audience with Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and meet the Thai leadership including the Prime Minister of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand.

The Vice President is expected to deliver a speech at the prestigious Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on the topic 'From Look East to Act East: India's Partnership with Thailand and ASEAN'. He is also expected to address the Indian community in Thailand at a reception hosted in his honour by the Ambassador of India to Thailand.

The Vice President is also likely to visit the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand on February 5 where the Governor of the province will be hosting a banquet in his honour. He will also visit the Royal Development Study Centre on Sustainable Development.

India's excellent relations with Thailand are an important and integral component of India's strategic partnership with ASEAN. India's 'Act East' policy is complemented by Thailand's 'Look West' policy in bringing the two countries closer. Sustained high level bilateral exchanges and regular meetings of bilateral institutional mechanisms have provided a major fillip to India-Thailand relations and achieved progress in key areas of cooperation such as security, defence, commerce, science and technology and education.

India and Thailand have strong economic synergies and the diversifying profile of growing bilateral trade and investment reflects the growth and maturity of the two economies. Extensive people-to-people contacts are central to the India-Thailand relationship. In 2015, more than 1 million Indian tourists visited Thailand and over 100,000 Thai tourists visited India.