Ambassador of Thailand to China Arthayudh Srisamoot Photo: Wang Qi/GT

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is important in fostering connectivity, provides an ideal regional environment for promoting China-Thailand cooperation, Ambassador of Thailand to China Arthayudh Srisamoot told the Global Times, noting that more cooperation is expected in the future. 

Srisamoot made the remarks on the sidelines of the ASEAN-China Week (ACW) opening on Friday in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province. The ACW is viewed as an important event ushering in more frequent China-ASEAN exchanges and multilateral events in the second half 2023.

The ambassador hailed ASEAN-China week's role in creating more knowledge and understandings about ASEAN culture, as Chinese students, and the general public will  have an opportunity to learn about ASEAN food, products, and meet new people through the event. 

"There will be more travel between ASEAN countries and China…ASEAN is very important in promoting closer people-to people cooperation," Ambassador of Thailand to China Arthayudh Srisamoot told the Global Times

In terms of BRI cooperation, the ambassador hailed the initiative's role in fostering connectivity between nations. 

"There are many industrial parks in Thailand, and Chinese business invested in these industrial parks. Thailand companies were also invited to invest in industrial parks in South China. E-commerce is also part of BRI, which is promoting more cross-border trade," Srisamoot told the Global Times.

The free flow of Thai exports has enjoyed very good market access in China… the BRI provides an ideal neighboring environment for the two countries to cooperate, not only in transportation, logistics, but also in people-to-people exchanges of culture and youth between two nations, the ambassador remarked. 

When it comes to the location of the event, Fujian Province, the ambassador said the Thailand and Fujian shares many similarities. 

"Hundreds of years ago, some Chinese people came to Thailand, invested in Thailand and lived in Thailand, the dialect in southern Fujian is similar to the language spoken by some Thai people… the food is similar, language is similar… many Thai people have relatives in Fujian, a lot of direct flights… we have consulate general in Xiamen to foster more cooperation between Fujian Province and Thailand," the ambassador said. 

In the future, we will have more sister city cooperation, and more university exchanges programs between Fujian and Thailand, the ambassador said. 

When asking about Thailand's famous durian, which is a popular snack in China, the ambassador said "we would like to invite Chinese consumers to Thailand to taste more delicious Thai durian, because it's fresher in Thailand."

In the future, we will have more Thai durian in China, and the quality will be better," he told the Global Times.