Concerning the visit of Mr. Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and delegation to Japan on 17 March 2011 to assist Thais nationals affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami, the Secretary to the Minister began his mission by delivering necessary commodities such as blankets, clothing, dried food and other necessities to the abbot of Pak Nam Temple, which is located near Narita Airport, Tokyo. The Temple has been asked by the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo to act as a temporary shelter for Thais in need. At present, there are approximately 30 people residing at the temple. Food and drinks are being prepared by both the temple and the Embassy.
Afterwards, the Secretary to the Minister and the Thai Ambassador to Tokyo proceeded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to present 20,000 blankets graciously donated by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and Her Royal Highness Princess Srirasm to the Japanese people. Mr. Chiaki Takahashi, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Japan, as representative of the Japanese Government, received the said donation and expressed his sincere appreciation to Their Royal Highnesses and the Royal Thai Government as well as Thai people and confirmed that the Japanese side would closely work with the Royal Thai Embassy to assist Thais in Japan.
The Secretary to the Minister took the opportunity to express Thailand’s readiness to assist Japan in every way until the situation returns back to normalcy. The Royal Thai Government and Thai people are very much worried about the Japanese people and are proud of the Japanese people’s tolerance and unity to solve the problem at hand and try to recover the country. In this regard, the Royal Thai Government and Thai people are confident that Japan would recover soon.
The Secretary to the Minister continued his journey to Fukushima Prefecture to assist 12 persons from Koriyama City and 9 from Shirakawa City who wish to travel to Tokyo. In this regard, they all temporarily stayed at Pak Nam Temple in Tokyo. As well as this, the Secretary to the Minister also presented dried food to the Thais in the province who preferred to stay on in Japan.
Today (18 March 2011), the Secretary to the Minister traveled to visit 30 Thais out of a total of 4,750 Thais residing in Ibaraki Prefecture. At this stage, no Thais wishes to leave Ibaraki and the Secretary to the Minister present supplies to them.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th