Sawasdee
ka and Dobrý
Den,
On
the 5th of December every year, Thais around the world celebrate our
national day, which is the Birthday Anniversary of His Majesty the Late King Bhumibol
Adulyadej the Great of Thailand as well as the Father Day of the nation. And
today, I am pleased to celebrate this auspicious occasion with all of you.
In
2020, the momentum of Thai-Czech
relations continues. Following the official visit of the His Excellency Prime Minister
Andrej Babis in 2019, there were several high-level visits to Thailand from the
Czech representatives, including the visit of His Excellency Radek Vondracek, the Speaker of the Chamber
of Deputies, His Excellency Richard Brabec, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of Environment, and His Excellency Antonín Staněk, Chairperson of the
Czech-Thai Inter-parliamentary
Friendship Group. Those visits clearly demonstrated firm commitment and close cooperation
between our two countries.
Unfortunately,
the planned official visit to the Czech Republic of our Prime Minister, His
Excellency General Prayuth Chan-o-cha this year couldn’t be realized due to the
COVID-19 situation. Numbers of events
and meetings were forced to reschedule and adapted to a New Normal, including the
Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation, the Sub-Committee on Tourism, and the
Coordinating Committee on Defence Cooperation, to name a few. However, with a strong commitment of both
sides, I am certain that all these activities will be actualized in 2021.
On
the economic front, despite the COVID-19 situation, I am pleased that our
bilateral trade has not been affected, thanks to a strong partnership between the
Chambers of Commerce, who have renewed the Memorandum of Understanding on their
Cooperation this year, as well as private sectors of both sides. On our part, the Royal Thai Embassy in Prague
will continue to support and promote trade and investment cooperation and
opportunity between our two countries.
On
the positive note, the COVID-19 situation gives us the opportunity to promote
people-to-people relations. We are delighted to be invited to participate in
the International Travelling Exhibition Helpful
Art in COVID promoting artworks created from around the world during the
pandemic, including several Thai artists. Those artworks helped people survive
through this hard time and we are more than happy to be part of it.
During
this difficult time, the Royal Thai Embassy in Prague together with the Tourism
Authority of Thailand cooperated with local authorities and agencies, including
Mayor Office of Prague 1 in preparing Thai food for healthcare workers,
firefighters and volunteers, and in contributing Thai food products for those
in needs through the Federation of Czech Food Banks. Our
contribution and support, although in a small way, reflected our thanks and
strong commitment to join hands with Prague and the Czech Republic in fighting
against the COVID-19.
Last
but not least, I would like to express our appreciation to relevant Czech authorities for their kind
support to the Embassy’s consular mission in helping Thai nationals residing in
the Czech Republic, who are affected by the situation. Our appreciation is also
extended to all who have contributed to the Thai-Czech relations and we are
looking forward to stregthening and deepening our friendship and cooperation next
year and many years to come.
Kob
Kun ka. Dekujeme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbWpGDi7lsw&t=8s
