On 2 May 2025, H.E. Mr. Maris Sangiampongsa, Minister of Foreign Affairs hosted a working lunch in honour of Mr. Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who visited Thailand as guest of the Ministry during 1 - 3 May 2025 to discuss with senior Thai representatives how to jointly drive forward the process of Thailand's accession to the OECD and to open the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Forum, co-hosted by Thailand, the OECD and Australia.

At the working lunch, both sides discussed approaches to advance cooperation between Thailand and the OECD in all dimensions, including Thailand's accession to the OECD and ways to promote the participation of all sectors of Thailand in this process. In this regard, the Secretary-General commended Thailand's leading role in promoting cooperation between the OECD and Southeast Asian region and reaffirmed his readiness to support Thailand's accession to the OECD, which has continued to progress, to benefit all sectors of Thailand. In addition, the Ministry arranged for bilateral discussions between the Secretary-General with high-level representatives of Thailand, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Minister of Commerce, Advisor to the Prime Minister and President of the Thai Trade Representative (Dr. Nalinee Taveesin), and the First Vice President of the Senate (Gen. Kriangkrai Srirak). He also attended the event launching the OECD Thailand Competition Peer Review, which was prepared by the Trade Competition Commission of Thailand in collaboration with the OECD under the OECD Thailand Country Programme Phase 2 to provide recommendations for enhancing fair competition.

This visit to Thailand is the second visit by the OECD Secretary-General in just 7 months, reflecting the highly dynamic cooperation between the OECD and Thailand and the strong partnership between the two countries. The visit also underlined Thailand's commitment to promote the voice of Southeast Asia in the OECD. Thailand was invited to join the OECD Accession Discussions on 17 June 2024. Currently, Thailand is in the process of preparing the Initial Memorandum (IM), in which Thai agencies identify key issues where improvement in laws, policies and practices are required in order to fully implement the OECD Accession Roadmap.