Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra attends a press conference at the Pheu Thai party headquarters. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Thailand’s new Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Monday (August 19, 2024) thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his greetings and said she looked forward to working closely with him to build upon the existing ties and explore untapped potentials to create even greater opportunities for the two countries.

Ms. Shinawatra, the 37-year-old former business executive, became Thailand’s youngest Prime Minister after receiving a royal letter of endorsement on Sunday, two days after she was chosen by Parliament following a court order that removed her predecessor.

“I look forward to working closely with you to further strengthen our bilateral relations, especially in the areas of trade and investment, culture, people-to-people contact, and tourism, in particular to increase air travel between both countries,” Ms. Shinawatra said in a post on X.

“I am confident that we can build upon our existing ties and explore untapped potentials to create even greater opportunities for our two countries, peoples and beyond,” she said further in the post that was in response to Prime Minister Modi’s post congratulating her.

“Congratulations @ingshin on your election as the Prime Minister of Thailand. Best wishes for a very successful tenure. Look forward to working with you to further strengthen the bilateral ties between India and Thailand that are based on the strong foundations of civilisational, cultural and people to people connect,” Mr. Modi said earlier in the day in a post on X.

Ms Paetongtarn became the Prime Minister days after the Constitutional Court removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin within a year of his assuming charge after the court found him guilty of a serious ethical breach.

She belongs to a political dynasty founded by her billionaire father, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006. He returned to Thailand last year when his party formed the government.

Ambassador Pimchanok Vonkorpon Pitfield. File photo: www.wto.org

Thailand has replaced its Ambassador to WTO Pimchanok Vonkorpon Pitfield from here following a strong protest lodged by India on her contentious comment on New Delhi’s rice procurement programme, a top government official said on Friday.

The official said that Ms. Pitfield has been asked to report back to Thailand after the 13th ministerial conference (MC), which has entered the fifth day of talks. She has been learnt to have replaced the Thai foreign secretary.

India has expressed strong disappointment over Ms. Pitfield’s remarks during a consultation meeting on Tuesday accusing New Delhi that India’s rice procurement programme at Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the public distribution system is not for people but for capturing the export market, the official said.

Following this, India has formally registered its protest with the Thai government and has also expressed displeasure with the WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, agri committee chair Kenya and UAE.

“The Thai Ambassador has been replaced. She has ridiculed India’s PSH [Public Stockholding] programme” the official said, adding that the language and behavior of the Thai ambassador were not in good taste.

After lodging their protest on the issue, the Indian negotiators had also refused to participate in some deliberations in groups where the Thai representative was present.

The government official said that her facts were wrong as only about 40%of the paddy produce is procured by the government to meet food security commitments.

A part of the remaining quantity, which is not procured by the government-owned agencies, is exported from India at market prices.

India is a major player in rice exports along with Thailand. Certain developed and developing nations on different forums have alleged that India’s public stockholding of commodities such as rice distorts global market prices.

India was the largest rice exporting country in the world from 2018 to 2022 followed by Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2023, India banned the export of broken and non-basmati white rice in view of uncertainty around rice production here and other rice-producing countries due to geopolitical scenario, El Nino sentiments, and extreme climatic conditions to check domestic prices and ensure adequate availability in the market here.

Rice export from India was 22.24 million tonne in 2022, which accounts for 40.63 per cent of the world’s rice exports.

Export of broken rice has been prohibited from September 2022 and non-basmati white rice from July 2023. The export of basmati and parboiled non-basmati rice is continuing.

Thailand is also a member of a 19-nation group of agriculture exporters called the Cairns group. Other members of the group include Argentina, Brazil, Australia and Indonesia. The group is pushing for the free flow of agri commodities without any restrictions.