On July 30, Thai Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Samak
Sundaravej met with Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the PLA, at
the Prime Minister's Office. Ma Xiaotian was attending the 7th Sino-Thai defense
and security consultation in Bangkok.
Ma Xiaotian first conveyed cordial greeting and best wishes of Premier Wen
Jiabao to Prime Minister Samak, to which Samak expressed thanks, and he also
asked Ma Xiaotian to convey his best regards to Premier Wen Jiabo.
Samak said that the Thai Royal Family, Thai Government and Thai Armed
Forces attach great importance to the Thai-China friendship and are satisfied
with current friendly cooperative relations between the two countries. He said
that China and Thailand are goods friends and good neighbors, it is in the
fundamental interests of the peoples of the two countries to carry out friendly
cooperation. The relations between the two militaries have been developing
smoothly in recent years, the Thai side hopes to steadily strengthen the
pragmatic cooperation with the Chinese side.
Ma Xiaotian noted that as two next-door neighbors in Asia, China and
Thailand have enjoyed friendly cotacts for nearly 2000 years. In recent years,
gratifying development has been made in the relations between the Chinese and
Thai armed forces, as evidenced by fruitful pragmatic cooperation in military
training and other fields. The Chinese side is willing to work together with the
Thai side to push for constant development of the relations between the two
countries and the two militaries.
On the morning of the same day, Ma Xiaotian and Winai Phattiyakul,
permanent secretary of the Thai Ministry of National Defense, jointly presided
over the 7th Defense and Security Consultation between the National Defense
Ministries of China and Thailand, and the two sides exchanged views on
international and regional security situations and, on further developing the
relations between the two militaries, the two sides agreed that the two sides
would work together to push for in-depth development of the relations between
the two militaries.
By Ling Shuo and Zhang Qiulai
(July 31, PLA
Daily)
Editor: Ouyang Dongmei
