Chief of Vietnam's Communist Party arrives in Thailand

BANGKOK, June 25 (TNA) - The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong, arrived in Thailand on Tuesday morning, starting his three-day official visit to the Kingdom, also representing the first trip of the Vietnamese General Secretary to Thailand in 20 years. After his arrival in Bangkok, Nguyen Phu Trong first visited the Chakri Maha Prasat Throne Hall and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha inside the Grand Palace, before meeting with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to discuss bilateral strategic partnership between Thailand and Vietnam. Pitchayaphant Charnbhumidol, Deputy Director-General of Thailand's Department of East Asian Affairs, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acknowledged that, during the discussion at Bangkok's Government House, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who will be in Thailand until June 27, and the Thai Prime Minister would announce the development of comprehensively-strategic partnership between Thailand and Vietnam, including a goal to increase the value of mutual trade from 9 billion baht currently to 12 billion baht over the next four years. According to the senior official, relations between Thailand and Vietnam have entered a new era of closer connection and it is the first time for Thailand to announce such the strategic partnership with a neighbouring country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (TNA)