During 10-11 February 2559, H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs, paid an official visit to the Republic of Indonesia at the invitation of H.E. Mrs. Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. 

        During the visit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Jusuf Kalla, the Vice President of Indonesia. The Vice President conveyed his goodwill to General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand, and was pleased to see the longstanding and cordial diplomatic relations between Thailand and Indonesia reached its 65th anniversary last year. As the two top economies in ASEAN, both sides recognized the potential to promote cooperation in various dimensions, including fisheries and food security.

         The Minister of Foreign Affairs attended a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia to discussed bilateral issues. Both sides were pleased with the strengthened relations between Thailand and Indonesia and agreed to further promote exchange of high-level visits. In this regards, the Minister of Foreign Affairs conveyed an invitation from the Prime Minister to the President of Indonesia to pay an official visit to Thailand at the earliest convenience and invited the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia to pay an official visit to Thailand to attend the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting, scheduled to be held in Thailand, as well as agreed to convene the 9th Joint Commission in Indonesia in the latter-half of this year. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia also proposed a Consultation on Maritime Delimitation to build upon the result of the meeting between technical officers held in Thailand last May. Furthermore, both sides also agreed to further promote trade, investment, and tourism and push forward cooperation on issues of mutual interests, such as countering trans-national crime, terrorism, extremism, drugs, human trafficking, and wildlife trafficking. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia also expressed support for Thailand’s candidature for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the term 2017-2018.

          Afterward, the Minister of Foreign Affairs paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Le Luong Minh, the Secretary-General of ASEAN. Both sides welcome the official beginning of the ASEAN Community last December and look forward to the 50th anniversary of ASEAN in 2017. Both sides discussed measures to strengthen ASEAN and truly realized a people-centred ASEAN, including strengthens the ASEAN Secretariat. Both sides also realized the potential of promoting cooperation and sharing of lesson-learned among ASEAN countries and its dialogue partners to create a more effective and relevant ASEAN. In this regards, Thailand, as Country Coordinator for ASEAN-EU Dialogue Relations, stands ready to further promote cooperation between both sides. The ASEAN Secretary-General also praised Thailand’s success in raising awareness of ASEAN among its people.

         Lastly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs met and discussed with H.E. Mrs. Susi Pudjiastuti, the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia on the cooperation in the fishery sector. Both parties expressed their interests in solving the issue of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing. The Thai side proposed that both sides set a definite guideline and timeframe to move forward cooperation in fishery sector. In the short term, the Thai side will invite high-level officials from Indonesia to co-chair the first Joint Working Group Meeting on Fisheries Cooperation and further promote exchanges between relevant Thai and Indonesian businesses and government officials, while expediting the signing of MOU on Fisheries cooperation. In the long term, both sides agreed to promote investment in industrial fishery sector to create sustainable fishing supply-chain and businesses. The Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries recognized the efforts by the Thai Government and expressed her willingness to cooperate with Thailand to solve the problem in a sustainable manner. The Minister of Foreign Affairs also expressed his appreciation to the Indonesian Government for facilitating the repatriation of 1,800 Thai fishermen in Indonesia.