Thailand and other Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) countries are looking to enhance multilateral cooperation in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
A virtual meeting, Dialogue Partner Engagement on Covid-19: Responses, Cooperation, and Partnerships was recently attended by Thailand's senior official at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs, Cherdchai Chaivaivid, as well as senior officials from other IOR states and IORA dialogue partners.
The virtual attendees shared information and experiences regarding the effects of Covid-19 and national response measures to better help affected member countries and accelerate the post-pandemic economic recovery. Mr Cherdchai for his part spoke on the Thai government's response to the pandemic.
A draft CSO Statement on IORA Solidarity and Cooperation in Response to Covid-19 was also considered, covering issues such as information exchange, trade and investment facilitation, support for the World Health Organization (WHO), enhancing multilateral cooperation, stakeholder participation and providing aid to affected member countries. The IORA Secretariat will later circulate the final draft of the statement for consideration.
The meeting gave Thailand an opportunity to push forward public health cooperation issues complementing both national efforts and those of Asean, the department said. Thailand can also learn from the experiences and best practices of IOR states and dialogue partners, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom to meet future public health challenges, the department added.