Interview: Closer Thailand-China Ties to Create Win-win Situation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, September 01, 2002

Interview: Closer Thailand-China Ties to Create Win-win Situation

The increasingly close cooperationbetween Thailand and China will surely foster a win-win situation,Thai National Assembly President Uthai Pimchaichon said.

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The increasingly close cooperation between Thailand and China will surely foster a win-win situation,Thai National Assembly President Uthai Pimchaichon said.

In an interview with Chinese media on the eve of the upcoming official visit by China's top legislator Li Peng to the kingdom, Uthai said "Thailand-China relations have been on good terms like sister countries."

He noted that the ever-growing bilateral cooperation will benefit both countries in all fields, especially when China's economic power grows quickly.

Uthai, also speaker of the Thai House of the Representatives, the lower parliamentary chamber, attributed the firmly cooperation between the two nations to their common interests in regional issues as peace and stability, confidence-building, economic stability, trade liberalization and human security.

He vividly recalled exchanges of high-level visits between the two countries in recent years, including Chinese President Jiang Zemin's state visit to Thailand in September 1999, and Queen of Thailand Sirikit's visit to China in October 2000.

The top lawmaker expressed a warm welcome to the upcoming second visit of Li Peng to Thailand, in his capacity as chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China (NPC), scheduled between Sept. 3 and Sept. 8.

"It is a rare occasion for any one country and hence, a unique moment for Thailand and for the overall future developments of Thailand-China relations," he said.

"As Li Peng is a distinguished statesman of China, the Thai National Assembly regards this visit as a most important one and we will do our best to make it a highly successful one," he said.

Uthai said governments of the two countries have close working relations, sharing common interests in politics, security, trade and development, as well as in addressing problems such as drug trafficking, human security and environment.

On the economic side, he noted the trade and investment ties between the two countries are "buoyant" and the volume is expected to be multiplied as both China and Thailand are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN+3).

Meanwhile, the peoples of the two countries are getting more familiar with each other following enhancing ties in tourism, transport and other services sectors between the two countries.

On inter-parliamentary ties, Uthai stressed that the cooperation between the two longtime friends - Thai National Assembly and the NPC - is "very satisfying, very close, full of understanding and support of each other."

"Thai National Assembly and NPC not only maintain constant contacts and regular exchanges between their members, committees and parliament officials, but also work very closely at international and regional venues such as inter-parliamentary organizations to jointly promote interests of Asia and developing countries," he said.

"It is worthy of noting that the NPC plays a pivotal role with Thai National Assembly in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to strengthen the role of parliament in the WTO process," Uthai added.

The top lawmaker also praised the NPC's efforts in domestic legal reforms to meet WTO requirements after China's entry into that organization last year.

He believed the reforms will result in the opening of the Chinese market to foreign investors, liberalization of trade and helping China to expand its global market, increasing the income of Chinese citizens, and providing more choices for Chinese consumers as well.

On the rumor of so-called "China threat", Uthai argued that on the contrary, the robust economy of China stimulates the economy of the world, and China's economic stability serves as a pillar of economic stability for Asia and the world.

"It is true that with enormous capital, manpower, know-how and natural resources that China has today, countries around and beyond China will think that they will or could not be able to compete with China at all. But China is also a huge market where they can export goods and invest in. This is something that all should think about," he said.

Thus, Thailand will join hands with China to create a win-win situation, Uthai concluded, adding that he wishes to see concrete cooperation between the two parliaments on legislative developments and policy consultations taking place at all levels.

"That should be the priorities of our legislative contacts for the coming decades," he said.

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