Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn (Photo: AFP/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – The Vietnam-Thailand friendship and cooperation, particularly within the ASEAN framework, will continue to grow strongly and contribute to peace and prosperity in the two countries and in the world, said Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
The King made the statement while receiving newly-accredited Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Nguyen Hai Bang, who came to present his credentials.
Bang said he was honoured to take the post and vowed to do his best to boost friendly and cooperative ties between the governments, businesses and people of Vietnam and Thailand.
King Vajiralongkorn took the occasion to send his best wishes to Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong and recalled his good impression of Vietnam from past visits to the country.
Vietnam and Thailand established diplomatic relations in 1976.
Thailand is now the biggest trade partner of Vietnam in ASEAN, with two-way trade increasing to 15.3 billion USD in 2017 from 11.5 billion USD in 2015. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the second biggest trade partner of Thailand in ASEAN, following Malaysia.
In the first half of 2018, bilateral trade reached nearly 8 billion USD, an annual rise of 14.7 percent. Vietnam exported more than 2.7 billion USD worth of goods to Thailand during the period, up 22.7 percent year on year.-VNA
VNA
