Follow-Up: Thai King Vajiralongkorn Grants an Audience to Li Qiang at Dusit Palace in Bangkok
King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida of Thailand granted an audience to Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall of Dusit Palace in Bangkok at 5:22 p.m. on November 14, the Thai Royal Household announced the same day. Li is paying an official visit to Thailand as a guest of the Thai government, and a second secretary of the Asian Affairs Department of China's Foreign Ministry served as the Chinese-Thai interpreter at the audience.
Li arrived in Bangkok on the afternoon of November 13 and was welcomed at the airport by Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul; the two then held talks at Government House and witnessed the signing of seven memorandums of cooperation (see the related report). Last year, China and Thailand jointly celebrated the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties, designated the Golden Year of Friendship, during which King Vajiralongkorn paid a state visit to China and held a meeting with President Xi Jinping, lifting bilateral relations to a new historical starting point.
Xinhua reported that on the morning of November 14 Li also met in Bangkok with Sopon Intaraphan, President of Thailand's National Assembly and Speaker of the House of Representatives, with Senate Speaker Mongkol Surasajja, who is also a vice-president of the National Assembly, in attendance. Li said that under the strategic guidance of President Xi and King Vajiralongkorn, China-Thailand relations have maintained steady growth with fruitful cooperation across fields, and that China stands ready to carry forward the traditional friendship, consolidate political trust, deepen economic and trade exchanges, speed up the China-Thailand railway, encourage enterprises of both countries to cooperate in emerging fields such as new energy and electronic information, strengthen collaborative innovation, and enhance multilateral coordination. Sopon said Thailand firmly adheres to the one-China policy and is willing to maintain close high-level exchanges with China and advance cooperation in connectivity, culture and education, law-enforcement security and tourism, adding that the Thai parliament will provide a sound legal environment for mutually beneficial cooperation.
Also on November 14, Li and Anutin jointly attended a China-Thailand entrepreneurs' symposium in Bangkok and heard remarks from business representatives of both countries. Li said China and Thailand are jointly opening a new golden 50 years in their relations and face fresh opportunities for economic and trade cooperation, urging enterprises to upgrade cooperation, expand traditional agri-food trade, advance agricultural modernization, and work together in emerging fields such as super intelligence (SI), clean energy and biomedicine. Anutin said Thailand hopes to seize the opportunities of technological development and grow from a simple trading partner into a long-term partner of common development with China, expanding cooperation in electric vehicles, agriculture, investment and connectivity.
Li's visit to Thailand lasts three days; after it concludes on November 15 he will travel to Manila, the Philippines, to attend the 29th China-ASEAN Summit.
（Source: Thai Royal Household）
Source: Thai Royal Household
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于曼谷的杜斯特宫阿南达沙玛空殿。照片：Globe-trotter，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in Dusit Palace, Bangkok. Photo by Globe-trotter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
