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Remarks by H.E. Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
at a Lunch Hosted in His Honour
by H.E. Mr. Lee Hsien Loong
Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore,
22 June 2009, Istana
Your Excellency Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Your Excellency for the invitation to visit Singapore and the warm welcome extended to me and my delegation. I also thank the Government of Singapore for arranging my courtesy calls on the President as well as the Minister Mentor. I am deeply honoured to be able to meet with Their Excellencies later this afternoon.
I have been to Singapore many times before, but this is my first time here as Prime Minister. In any capacity, however, I never fail to be impressed by Singapore’s development and adherence to the values of hard work, discipline and perseverance. I am also impressed by your responses to the challenges of our times. Here, I am thinking of Singapore’s approach to water resources management, which is an issue that is very important to the Thai Government as well. The invention of NeWater and construction of the Marina Barrage are commendable initiatives. I also note that my visit today coincides with the start of Singapore International Water Week.
Your Excellency, the relations between Singapore and Thailand are anchored on strong foundations based on the concepts of "complementarity" and "win-win." As members of the ASEAN family, we also seek to strengthen our bilateral cooperation for the benefit of deeper regional integration.
This visit provides yet another opportunity to reaffirm the existing close and dynamic ties between our two countries and to further explore ways and means to deepen our cooperation in areas of mutual interest. This evening, I am due to meet with prominent business leaders in Singapore and will reaffirm to them that Thailand remains the Land of Hospitality and Investment Opportunities.
Your Excellency, I believe that we had very fruitful discussions earlier—indeed, a meeting of minds on where we are going and what we would like to achieve bilaterally and in ASEAN. We noted the progress made in various areas of our cooperation under the Civil Service Exchange Programme (CSEP), including the Third Country Training Programme. I wish to reiterate my proposal to expand coverage of the Third Country Training Programme to ACMECS and GMS and invite Singapore to consider becoming a development partner in such areas as trade and investment facilitation, education and human resource development. This would support the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), which is our common endeavour to narrow the development gap in ASEAN. On the economic front, we agreed on the importance of promoting trade and investment as well as tourism cooperation under the framework of the Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Economic Relationship (STEER), especially in light of the current global economic downturn. We are equally pleased with our close cooperation in defense and our cordial people-to-people relations.
At the regional level, our destinies are closely linked and lie with the future of ASEAN. As ASEAN Chair, Thailand appreciates Singapore’s understanding, contribution and support in working towards the realisation of the ASEAN Community under the ASEAN Charter for the benefit of the peoples of ASEAN and beyond. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Your Excellency to ensure a successful 15th ASEAN Summit as well as ASEAN +3 and East Asia Summits in October this year. Please allow me to have the honour of welcoming Your Excellency back to Thailand in a few months’ time and the opportunity to reciprocate your generous hospitality.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,May I now invite all of you here to join me in a toast to the good health and happiness of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, to the continued prosperity of Singapore, and to the everlasting ties of friendship and cooperation between Singapore and Thailand.
Government Spokesman Bureau
Foreign Relations Division