New Thai DPM/FM to perform duties overseas later this month

BANGKOK, September 11 (TNA) - Thailand's newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister General Thanasak Patimaprakorn is scheduled to visit China and the United States later this month. Thai Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sek Wannamethee, who is also Director-General of the ministry's Department of Information, told journalists on Thursday that General Thanasak, who is also Thai Armed Forces Chief, will attend the China-ASEAN Expo 2014 (CAEXPO) in China from September 15-17 and will then attend this year's United Nations General Assembly in New York. Sek said that General Thanasak will deliver a keynote speech at the 11th CAEXPO and will meet China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and leaders or foreign ministers of other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the sidelines of the CAEXPO 2014, held in Nanning, the capital of China's Guangxi Province. According to the spokesman, the new deputy prime minister and foreign minister will later lead a Thai delegation to fly to the United States to participate in the UN General Assembly (UNGE) 2014 at the UN headquarters in New York from September 24-28, during which he will meet foreign ministers of other ASEAN member countries and will join them to also have a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The spokesman acknowledged that new Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha, meanwhile, plans to visit ASEAN neighbouring countries soon. (TNA)