Thailand, France enhance cooperation in several areas

BANGKOK, February 6 (TNA) - Thailand and France have agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in several areas, including economic, educational and security projects. The agreement was reached during a two-day official visit to Thailand by French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, scheduled for February 4-5, as the guest of the Thai government. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra officially received his French counterpart with guards of honor at Bangkok's Government House on Tuesday evening. The French and Thai national leaders then further discussed bilateral cooperation between Bangkok and Paris, which developed from their previous talk during the Thai prime minister’s visit to France last year. France has paid attention to trade expansion, infrastructure development in Thailand, educational cooperation, as well as regional and multilateral issues. The Thai and French Premier also witnessed the signing of five documents comprising an agreement on national defence copperation, a letter of intent on educational cooperation, a memorandum of understanding or MOU on cooperation on the production of combination vaccines to prevent diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and hepatitis, an MOU on cooperation on international research networks and an agreement between Thailand's Rajamangala University of Technology and France's University Institutes of Technology on their joint curricula development. Afterwards, the Thai and French leaders held a joint press conference on the successful trip to Bangkok by the French Premier, who later attended a dinner banquet hosted by his Thai counterpart, together with his entourage, including his wife, certain Cabinet members and business persons, before ending his official visit to Thailand, the first-ever by a French prime minister in more than two decades. (TNA)