Thailand seen as Colombia's major partner in Southeast Asia

BANGKOK, July 12 (TNA) - Visiting Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin says that Colombia considers Thailand as a major partner in Southeast Asia. Government Spokesman Teerat Ratanasevi told journalists on Friday that the visiting Colombian Foreign Minister made the remarks when she paid a courtesy call on Thai Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at Bangkok's Government House on Friday. According to the spokesman, the visiting Colombian Foreign Minister acknowledged that she is happy to pay an official visit to Thailand for the first time and she hopes her ongoing trip to Thailand this week will strengthen bilateral relations and help promote trade and investment cooperation between the private sectors of both countries. On the occasion, the Thai prime minister noted that both Thailand and Colombia have adhered to democracy, respected human rights and tried to improve the life of their people, and that the Thai government is developing national infrastructure to turn Thailand to become a regional transport center when the ASEAN Community (AC) is formed by 2015. The Thai prime minister also expressed her appreciation to Colombia’s roles in solving conflicts with the FARC rebel group, reducing poverty and promoting women’s roles, stressing that Thailand has also attached importance to such problems and proposing experience exchanges and bilateral cooperation on such the issues. During her stay in Thailand, the visiting Colombian Foreign Minister is also scheduled to preside over the reopening of the Colombian Embassy to Thailand and to attend a meeting of Colombian ambassadors to Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. The visiting Colombian Foreign Minister echoed that the reopening of the Colombian Embassy to Thailand and the organization of the Colombian ambassadors’ meeting in Bangkok shows Colombia considers Thailand as its important allied nation in Southeast Asia. (TNA)