Thai DPM visits Vietnam

BANGKOK, January 14 (TNA) - Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan is paying a three-day official visit to Vietnam, scheduled for January 13-15, aimed to further strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation between Bangkok and Hanoi. Accompanied by his entourage, including Thai Permanent Secretary for Defence General Sirichai Ditsakul, General Prawit departed for Vietnam on Tuesday afternoon. During his trip to Vietnam, at the invitation of the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, General Prawit is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and to meet Vietnamese Minister of National Defense General Phung Quang Thanh. As part of his mission to further strengthen bilateral relations between Bangkok and Hanoi, after Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha's visit to Vietnam last year, General Prawit will raise the development of bilateral military cooperation and the extension of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on bilateral military cooperation, signed in 2012, covering national defence, intelligence on national security, joint military exercises and education, peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, military science and technology, national defence industry and other military missions, for talks with the Vietnamese leaders. The Thai deputy premier will also discuss with the Vietnamese authorities cooperation on a transport connectivity in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and the development of special economic zones along the common border in line with the Thai government's policy and on joint security measures to upgrade living conditions of people in border areas and to help boost regional security. (TNA)