Thai-US to jointly handle new security threats

BANGKOK, November 15 (TNA) - US Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta is paying an official visit to Thailand from November 15-16, during which he is scheduled, among others, to secure US-Thai cooperation against new forms of security threats in the world community. Upon his arrival in Bangkok earlier on Thursday, Panetta led his delegation to meet his Thai counterpart Air Chief Marshall Sukumpol Suwannatat to discuss the realigned Thai-US cooperation, namely through the annual world-class "Cobra Gold" multilateral military exercises, to handle the emerging security challenges in order to stabilize the Southeast Asian and the Asian-Pacific regions. As part of the bilateral defense talks, Washington and Bangkok also inked the 2012 Joint Vision Statement for the Thai-U.S. Defense Alliance. (TNA)