The 7th Thailand – United States Strategic Dialogue

Ambassador Manasvi and the Royal Thai Embassy team joined the 7th Thailand – United States Strategic Dialogue on 21 May 2021, which was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and co-chaired by Permanent Secretary Thani Thongphakdi for the Thai side, and Ambassador Atul Keshap, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs for the U.S. side.

Both sides stressed the long-standing partnership and friendship, as well as expressed mutual commitment to cooperate on challenging issues, especially threats from the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging diseases, economic recovery, climate change and fast-changing regional architecture. The last Thailand – United States Strategic Dialogue was held 4 years ago in Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

Press Statement
The 7th Thailand – United States Strategic Dialogue

 

On 21 May 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand hosted the 7th Thailand – United States Strategic Dialogue via teleconference. The Thai delegation was led by Permanent Secretary Thani Thongphakdi, while Ambassador Sung Kim, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Ambassador Atul Keshap, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs led the U.S. delegation.

The Dialogue reviewed the bilateral relations and common strategic priorities. Both sides reaffirmed the strong and long-standing partnership and looked forward to reinvigorating the bilateral engagement and working together on the issues of shared values and priorities.

Both sides reiterated the importance of the Thailand – U.S. strong security and defense alliance, which has long contributed to the peace and prosperity of the region and remains the cornerstone of the long-standing relations. Both sides discussed on ways to further strengthen the security cooperation, including addressing non-traditional security challenges, such as cyber security, health, human security and human trafficking, among others.

The Dialogue highlighted the bilateral economic ties, which remains strong despite the challenges posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic. On Thailand – U.S. economic and development partnership, the two delegations deliberated on ways to enhance cooperation on COVID-19 prepareness and response; securing a strong and resilient supply chain between the two countries; climate change, clean energy and technology, which are in line with both the Thai Government’s policy on Bio-Circular-Green Economy and the U.S. Government’s priority on climate issues.

On this occasion, both sides exchanged views on the current regional strategic landscape, particularly key regional developments and common challenges. They also discussed on promoting cooperation at the sub-regional and regional levels through existing regional and sub-regional frameworks such as APEC, ASEAN, ACMECS, and Mekong-US Partnership.

The Thailand – U.S. Strategic Dialogue is a dialogue framework between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and the U.S. Department of State and serves as a key platform to discuss strategic directions in enhancing Thailand – U.S. long-standing relations. The 6th Thailand-US Strategic Dialogue was held in July 2017 in Washington, D.C.