PM Manmohan Singh on a two-day visit to Thailand

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Thailand on a two-day visit after wrapping up his Japan visit on Thursday. Manmohan is expected to meet Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and outline the Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement and elevate bilateral ties into a strategic partnership.

Manmohan will also discuss infrastructure projects, defence, science and technology as well as education with the Thai Prime Minister during his visit.

Manmohan ended his three-day visit in Tokyo that saw India and Japan reaffirm the importance of civil nuclear cooperation, while recognising that nuclear safety is a priority for both governments.

Manmohan, accompanied by a high-level delegation, left for Bangkok on a day's visit to reinforce India's "Look East" policy, recognising Thailand as a key gateway to the ASEAN region and seeking to elevate bilateral ties into a "strategic partnership". Ahead of the Prime Minister's visit, the Thai Foreign Ministry said the bilateral meeting "reflects the desire of the two sides to elevate Thai-Indian relations to a strategic partnership, as announced in January last year."

Frequent exchanges of high-level bilateral visits reflect the closer relations between the two nations as well as the 'Look West' policy of Thailand and 'Look East' policy of India respectively, it said in a statement. During the visit, a slew of MoUs covering space, extradition, IT, education, financial intelligence units to check money laundering are expected to be inked.

Besides, issues like geo-politics, the trilateral highway project involving India, Thailand and Myanmar, defence, science and technology, education and culture, will be discussed by the Prime Minister with his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra.

His visit to Thailand will be the first by an Indian premier after the 2004 visit by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Pulok Chatterjee, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and other senior officials are accompanying Manmohan.