Bangladesh seeks to boost relations with Thailand

The JC, a high level mechanism co-chaired by foreign ministers of the two countries, oversees bilateral relations in various aspects including politics, economics and security. “This joint commission is long overdue. We want a discussion on more political interaction between the two governments,” said Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem. 
The last JC meeting in Bangkok was held in 1998 so Dhaka was looking forward to the visit of Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramuwinai, who had agreed in principle to visit Bangladesh by the second quarter of this year, she said. The meeting will take place by the end of April or early May, she added.
The two countries’ foreign ministers will touch on various issues for bilateral cooperation such as visas and strategic and security cooperation, she said. “The two countries do not have a mechanism for security matters and we have had a proposal for quite some time to have a joint taskforce for combating transnational crimes such as drugs trafficking and terrorism,” she said.
The diplomatic relationship between Bangladesh and Thailand was established following Thailand’s recognition of Bangladesh on October 5, 1972. Tasneem said the late King Bhumibol and HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn had played crucial roles in relations between the two countries. HM the King visited Bangladesh twice since 1992 while he was Crown Prince. HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn also visited the country twice and has a deep knowledge about the country’s Buddhism roots, she said. 
Bangladesh shares a lot of similarities with Thailand in terms of culture and civilisation, Tasneem said. “Culturally, we are similar. Our water festival of Songkran is the same as your Songkran on April 14. Our language is Sanskrit and Pali, which has been embeded in the Thai language for a long time. The word Suvarnaphumi is a pure Bengali word,” she said. 
While the Royal Family knows Bangladesh very well, Thai people – even the well-educated – do not know very much about the country, she said, adding that she had put a lot of effort into educating Thai people and possiblly change perceptions about the country. Only 5,000 Thai people visit Bangladesh annually. 
In order to have more cooperation and closer ties between the two countries, particularly encouraging mutual trips, Tasneem urged Thai authorities to ease visa restrictions for Bangladeshis to visit Thailand. At least, an exemption of visas for diplomats and officials should be implemented, as Bangladesh has with many Asean countries. “I believe if the Thai government eases the visa regime, the country would have double the number of visitors from the current 500,000 Bangladeshi visiting Thailand. A large number of visa applications were refused over the past years,” she said. 
Easing visas would benefit Thailand because Bangladeshis love to visit the Kingdom for medical purposes, tourism, shopping, business and conferences, she said. Bangladesh also wanted to have more economic cooperation on trade and investment with Thailand, she said.