Thailand & Australia pledge to stamp out trafficking
The government pledged to make human trafficking its top priority as Thailand renewed stronger trade ties with Australia yesterday.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha met Australia’s new ambassador, Angela Jane Macdonald, at Government House yesterday to discuss several options including trade opportunities between the two nations as they celebrated 70 years of diplomatic relations.
Government spokesperson Anucha Buraphachaisri made it known that tackling human trafficking is one of Thailand’s top priorities. The Australian diplomat welcomed Thailand’s commitment to stamping out the trafficking of persons and said Canberra is fully behind the kingdom’s crusade.
Australia ambassador Angela Jane Macdonald (right)
Macdonald added that Australia’s Counter Trafficking in Persons Centre of Excellence would play a key role in driving closer cooperation with their Thai counterparts.
Thailand was promoted from the Tier 2 Watch List up to Tier 2 in its annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report in July. The kingdom believes it is making good progress and is confident of moving up to Tier 1 in next year’s TIP.
PM Prayut underlined Thailand’s commitment to forge closer links with Australia and build strong bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, security and education among other things.
The Australian ambassador welcomed Thailand’s commitment and offered to support the kingdom at the 2022 Apec summit in November.
Both parties promised to meet the targets set out under the 2022-2025 draft strategic partnership plan. Priority is being given to areas of security, human trafficking, cyber security, public health, education and people-to-people relations.
Macdonald also acknowledged Australia’s backing for sub-regional and regional cooperation frameworks.
The Australian ambassador said she was confident both countries would flourish in trade and investment and tourism now Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted and added both nations were looking to expand more trade deals in the future.
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