India, Thailand discuss ways to strengthen defence, trade ties

India and Thailand on Tuesday held wide-ranging discussions covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations with focus on strengthening cooperation in the field of defence, security and trade.

India and Thailand on Tuesday held wide-ranging discussions covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations with focus on strengthening cooperation in the field of defence, security and trade.

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is in New Delhi on a day-long visit, also agreed to initiate a senior official-level dialogue between their Defence Ministries.

"The Prime Minister and I have had wide-ranging discussions covering the entire gamut of our bilateral relations. We have had a meeting of minds on how to move our relations forward," Singh said after the meeting.

He said the two have agreed to intensify the cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, education, tourism and culture.

"Our bilateral trade turnover has reached 6 billion US dollars. We have agreed to aim towards doubling of our trade by 2014. We have agreed to expedite the conclusion of negotiations on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement that would include goods, services and investment," he said noting that India welcomes more Thai investment.

Singh said India sees Thailand as playing a positive role "in our efforts to catalyse development and improve connectivity of our Northeastern states with the ASEAN region", to which the visiting leader assured his continued support.