The governments of China and Thailand have agreed on visa-free rules to increase people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
“China and Thailand will enter a ‘visa-free era’ as the two sides have just signed a joint visa exemption agreement,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry website accessed by Antara on Tuesday.
The page reads that the visa-free agreement between the two countries was announced at a joint conference by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara in Bangkok on Sunday (Jan. 28).
Although it did not mention when the visa-free rule was officially implemented, Wang Yi expressed confidence that the agreement would bring exchanges between bilateral peoples to a higher level.
The statement also said China is Thailand’s largest trading partner and largest source of foreign investment.
“The two sides agreed to accelerate the construction of the China-Thailand Railway, fully implement the vision of interconnected development between China, Laos and Thailand, and open the central line of the Trans-Asia Railway early,” it said.
China will also import more competitive agricultural products from Thailand, support more Chinese enterprises investing and doing business in Thailand and push forward new cooperation in new energy vehicles, digital economy and green development.
The two sides also agreed to strengthen law enforcement and security cooperation, resolutely prevent cross-border crimes such as telecommunications fraud, online gambling and drug trafficking, and provide a safe and comfortable environment for exchanges and cooperation between the two peoples.
“Facing a turbulent and intertwined international environment, both sides should remain committed to the five principles of peaceful coexistence, jointly uphold the hard-won peace and stability of the region and firmly oppose the ‘zero-sum game’,” it read.
Recently, China and Singapore have also agreed on a 30-day visa-free regime for both countries’ citizens starting February 9, 2024. China has previously implemented a 15-day unilateral visa waiver for France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia.
“We welcome other countries to cooperate with China to facilitate cross-border travel. Recently, Singapore and Thailand signed mutual visa-free agreements with China. France and Switzerland also announced they would provide more visa facilities for Chinese citizens,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said in Beijing, China on Monday.
He said he did not rule out the possibility of a similar agreement being made with Japan.
“China has always attached great importance to facilitating visits by foreigners to China, including Japanese citizens. We will intensively study the requests of all sectors in Japan to continue the visa-free travel policy to China,” Wang Wenbin said.
He hopes Japan can cooperate in the same direction to facilitate cross-border travel between the two countries.