Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn paid a state visit to China from the 13th to the 17th. On the 14th, China announced it would purchase 500,000 tons of rice from Thailand. On the same day, Vajiralongkorn met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, expressing willingness to strengthen friendly exchanges and deepen practical cooperation with China, and to join hands on the road of shared development.
Li Qiang met with Vajiralongkorn on the 14th at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, stating that China is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with Thailand, strengthen good-neighborly friendship, support each other firmly, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote further achievements in building the China-Thailand community with a shared future, to better benefit both peoples. China is also willing to continue expanding bilateral trade and two-way investment with Thailand, and to expand cooperation in emerging fields such as green economy, artificial intelligence, and aerospace.
He said that China and Thailand are close geographically and culturally, and both sides should deepen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as culture and tourism to further cement the foundation of friendship between the two peoples.
Vajiralongkorn stated that the traditional friendship between Thailand and China is profound, cooperation in various fields has yielded rich results, and the prospects are broad. The Thai side highly appreciates the great achievements China has made in economic and social development in recent years and is willing to strengthen friendly exchanges and deepen practical cooperation with China, joining hands on the road of shared development.
During the visit, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who accompanied Vajiralongkorn, announced on social media that China would purchase the aforementioned amount of rice from Thailand. This purchase is an important achievement following a bilateral meeting between Srettha and Chinese leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held earlier in South Korea.