(Unofficial Translation)

Sawadee krap (Hello)!

I am truly grateful to Prime Minister Prayut and the people of the Kingdom of Thailand for inviting me to make this first visit by a foreign head of state since the launch of your new Administration and for warmly welcoming my delegation and me.

Following my inauguration, I sent a special envoy to ASEAN, the first by a Korean president, out of a profound interest in and affection for Southeast Asia. I promised that I would visit all 10 ASEAN member countries during my term in office. It is meaningful for me to fulfill that promise through this trip, starting with a visit to Thailand, the Chair of ASEAN for 2019.

Last year, bilateral trade volume reached an all-time high of US$14.1 billion, and the number of people-to-people exchanges between our two countries surpassed 2.36 million. This remarkable advancement of bilateral ties has its roots in the sacrifice of Thailand’s Korean War veterans who were among the first to come to the aid of Korea in a time of adversity. On behalf of the Korean people, I pay tribute to your Korean War veterans. I am confident that relations between our two countries will deepen further based on trust and friendship forged in blood.

At today’s summit, Prime Minister Prayut and I reached an agreement to substantially strengthen our strategic partnership to jointly usher in a future of peace and mutual prosperity in East Asia.

First, we agreed to jointly prepare for the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by expanding the horizon of bilateral cooperation to cover science and technology as well as new industries.  

We expressed high regard for the cooperation between our two countries on infrastructure, water management and the environment and agreed to further strengthen collaboration in new industries such as future vehicles, robots and bioengineering. 

We also came to an agreement to work together to craft a future marked by innovation and inclusiveness by linking the Thailand 4.0 policy, which Prime Minister Prayut is actively pursuing in response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and Korea’s policy for innovative growth. 

We agreed to further boost bilateral cooperation on the promotion of startups and the digital economy as well as in the development of synchrotron radiation accelerators, a core technology for medicine and the nano industry, and in pure and applied sciences involving research reactors and scientific satellites. 

In particular, we hope that Korea, the third country in the world to develop a fourth-generation synchrotron radiation accelerator, will be able to participate in Thailand’s project to build an accelerator.

Second, we two leaders agreed to work together to bring the peoples of our two countries closer.

Among the ASEAN member states, Thailand sends the most visitors to Korea, and some 1.8 million Koreans visited Thailand last year. Around 400 Korean businesses presently in Thailand are bringing about common prosperity for our two countries. 

As our two countries are becoming much closer, we agreed to establish an institutional foundation to keep the peoples of our two countries safer while in each other’s countries.  

Third, we agreed to cooperate more closely for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in East Asia and the rest of the world. 

I am pleased by the fact that the Korea-Thailand General Security of Military Information Agreement was signed during my visit, and through this, our two countries will work together more solidly in the areas of national defense and the defense industry. 

I explained the Korean Government’s vision to establish a peace-driven economy through a peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula by achieving denuclearization and, moreover, to create an East Asia of coexistence and prosperity. Prime Minister Prayut has expressed his active support for Korea’s New Southern Policy. 

Our two leaders will closely work together so that the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit and the inaugural Mekong-Korea Summit to be held in Busan this year will serve as an opportunity to deepen friendly cooperation between Korea and ASEAN further.

Most of all, the Mekong-Korea Summit will give substance to cooperation at the ACMECS, the Mekong region economic consultative body that is led by Thailand and has Korea as a development partner. In this way, the summit can serve as a catalyst for writing a new chapter in mutually beneficial cooperation between Korea and the Mekong region. 

I extend my gratitude once more to Prime Minister Prayut and the people of Thailand for your warm hospitality. I’m looking forward to seeing you in Busan at the end of this year. 

Thank you.