India and Thailand on Thursday upgraded their relations to a strategic partnership.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Thai counterpart Paetongtarn Shinawatra explored ways to enhance trade and investment and bolster cooperation in defence, security and countering cyber-crimes and human trafficking.
The two leaders met in Bangkok a day ahead of the Bimstec Summit to be hosted by Thailand on Friday. Thailand is among India’s key partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and bilateral defence and security cooperation has grown steadily within the framework of India’s “Act East” policy.
Modi conveyed India’s deepest condolences for the loss of lives in the earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand on March 28 at a joint media interaction with Shinawatra and said: “Thailand has a special place in India’s ‘Act East’ policy and our Indo-Pacific vision. Today we have decided to give our relations the form of a strategic partnership.”
Speaking in Hindi, he added, “We also discussed the establishment of a strategic dialogue between our security agencies.”
With an eye on China, Modi said India fully supports Asean unity, and that the two countries back a free, open, inclusive and rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific. In the Asean region, as maritime neighbours, both sides have shared interests in regional peace, stability and prosperity.
“We believe in the policy of development, not expansionism,” Modi said, in a tacit reference to China’s increasingly assertive posture in the South and East China Seas. He added in a social media post that India’s “Act East” and Thailand’s “Act West” policies complement each other and open possibilities for cooperation.