Bangkok (VNA) – The Vietnam-Thailand friendship and cooperation, particularly withinthe ASEAN framework, will continue to grow strongly and contribute to peace andprosperity in the two countries and in the world, said Thai King MahaVajiralongkorn.
The King made thestatement while receiving newly-accredited Vietnamese Ambassador to ThailandNguyen Hai Bang, who came to present his credentials.
Bang said he washonoured to take the post and vowed to do his best to boost friendly andcooperative ties between the governments, businesses and people of Vietnam andThailand.
KingVajiralongkorn took the occasion to send his best wishes to Vietnamese PresidentNguyen Phu Trong and recalled his good impression of Vietnam from past visitsto the country.
Vietnam andThailand established diplomatic relations in 1976.
Thailand is now thebiggest trade partner of Vietnam in ASEAN, with two-way trade increasing to15.3 billion USD in 2017 from 11.5 billion USD in 2015. Meanwhile, Vietnam isthe second biggest trade partner of Thailand in ASEAN, following Malaysia.
In the first half of2018, bilateral trade reached nearly 8 billion USD, an annual rise of 14.7percent. Vietnam exported more than 2.7 billion USD worth of goods to Thailand duringthe period, up 22.7 percent year on year.-VNA
