On 10 July 2009, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya co-chaired the 1st Thailand-New Zealand Joint Commission Meeting (JC) with Mr. Murray McCully, Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, at Auckland.
Foreign Minister Kasit discussed with his New Zealand counterpart various areas of potential bilateral cooperation, such as food, education and research, science and technology, alternative energy, environmental preservation, and ecotourism. Areas of particular interest to Thailand are food and agricultural technology. Thailand proposed to cooperate more closely with New Zealand on alternative energy, particularly the cultivation of fuel crops.
As New Zealand is able to maintain a good balance among environmental preservation, industrial development, and quality of tourism resources, Thailand also wished to engage more closely with New Zealand in eco-tourism knowledge-sharing.
The Joint Commission Meeting between Thailand and New Zealand is a result of the Arrangement on the Establishment of a Joint Commission between the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Government of New Zealand, signed during the APEC Meeting in Korea in November 2005. The said agreement became a framework for further cooperation and exchange programmes in new areas other than economic and trade issues under the Thai-New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (TNZCEP).
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