20-Apr-2023: 13th Joint Trade Committee meeting of India and Thailand held in New Delhi
The 13th Meeting of India Thailand Joint Trade Committee (JTC) was held today in New Delhi. This was the first physical meeting of the JTC after it was revived in 2020, after 17 years.
Thailand is India’s important trading partner in ASEAN with total trade of USD 16.89 Billion in 2022-23. Thailand accounts for 13.6% of India’s total trade with ASEAN. Thailand is an important destination for India’s gems and jewellery, mechanical machinery, auto and auto components and agricultural products especially marine products.
Reviewing the status of bilateral trade and each partner’s modest share in other’s global imports, the chairs emphasised the need for identifying new potential products and priority sectors for expanding the bilateral trade. Both sides also discussed various market access issues and technical barriers faced by their exporters and agreed to resolve the same through regular and sustained bilateral discussions. India raised the restriction faced in its export of marine, poultry and meat products.
Both sides identified a range of potential commodities and sectors for strengthened partnership such as value added marine products, smartphones, Electric vehicles, food processing and pharmaceuticals. The countries also agreed that there is huge scope in collaboration in the Service Sector and agreed to explore establishing mutual recognition/cooperation arrangements in Nursing, Accounting, Audio Visual and Medical Tourism.
The meeting also reviewed the progress of the ongoing efforts on connecting Unified Payment Interface (UPI) of India with Prompt Pay Service of Thailand and the settlement of trade transactions in local currency.
20-Apr-2023: India & Thailand review defence ties during 8th Defence Dialogue in Bangkok
8th India-Thailand Defence Dialogue was held in Bangkok on April 20, 2023. The meeting was co-chaired by Special Secretary, Ministry of Defence, India Smt Nivedita Shukla Verma and Deputy Permanent Secretary for Defence of Ministry of Defence, Thailand General Nuchit Sribunsong. During the meeting, both sides expressed satisfaction at the ongoing defence cooperation between the two countries.
The progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives was reviewed. The co-chairs identified means to enhance existing areas of collaboration, especially in the field of defence industry, maritime security and multinational cooperation. Thailand expressed confidence in the capability of Indian defence industry. The two chairs also articulated steps in the direction of emerging areas of cooperation and issues pertaining to global commons.