On 6 — 7 December 2011, Mr. Theerakun Niyom, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Thailand, will represent Mr. Surapong Tovichakchaikul, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, to lead the Thai Delegation to attend the 18th OSCE Ministerial Council in Vilnius, Lithuania.
OSCE, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was created in 1994 with an objective to enhance confidence building measures in three security dimensions, namely politico-military; economic and environment; and human. OSCE is a regional security organisation which serves as a forum for political consultations and addresses a wide range of security-related matters, including crisis management, dispute settlement, and conflict prevention. Currently, OSCE has 56 Participating State and 12 Partners for Cooperation from Asia and Mediterranean regions.
In 2000 Thailand became an OSCE Partner for Cooperation and remains the only ASEAN country having this status in OSCE. Thailand wishes to learn from OSCE’s experiences and to contribute to creating linkage between OSCE and ASEAN and ARF. For Thailand, OSCE serves as a platform to promote better understanding about important developments in Asia. Through OSCE, Thailand can share its experiences in addressing non-traditional threats. Thailand can also promote security cooperation of mutual interests between OSCE and Asia. Thailand has participated in OSCE Ministerial meetings and has actively contributed to promoting cooperation in different dimensions with a particular emphasis on human security.
The Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Thailand will deliver a statement focusing on Thailand’s role as an OSCE Partner for Cooperation, Thailand’s experiences in dealing with non-traditional security threats, which requires international and inter-regional cooperation to tackle these challenges more effectively. At the same time, Thailand stands ready to further enhance cooperation between OSCE and ASEAN and ARF which would boost confidence and security in Asia and Europe. The Permanent Secretary will also invite OSCE Participating States and Partners to attend the 2012 OSCE-Thailand Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which the Thai Government will host between 13 — 14 February 2012.
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