On 25 May 2021, Mr. Wattanawit Gajaseni, Deputy Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, co-chaired the 1^st Joint Meeting between Japan and Thailand on Japan-Thailand Partnership Pragramme Phase 3 (JTPP3) with Mr. TAKEHANA Masahiro, Director of First Country Assistance Planning Division, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, via video conference. The virtual meeting was also attended by the representatives from the Department of ASEAN Affairs, Department of East Asia Affairs, and Mekong Cooperation Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand as well as Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency (NEDA), the Embassy of Japan, and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Thailand.

This Joint Meeting on JTPP3 was the first meeting since both sides signed the MoU on JTPP3 on 31 October 2019 as a mechanism to promote development cooperation that Thailand and Japan jointly administer for third countries contributing to the achievement of SDGs. At the meeting, both sides discussed and exchanged views on development cooperation policy, priority areas, and the expectation of collaboration with each other under JTPP3. Both sides also reaffirmed the importance of cooperation in the sub-region/region under Trilateral Cooperation and existing frameworks such as ASEAN, ACMCES and Mekong-Japan Cooperation.

This meeting also served as a platform to update projects’ progress, to review opportunities and challenges from the implementation of projects under JTPP3 for Japan fiscal year 2020 and to explore future collaboration under JTPP3 for Japan fiscal year 2021. Both sides expressed satisfaction on the progress of the on-going projects despite the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Going forward, both sides expressed commitments to support cooperation for third countries in the areas of mutual interests and expertise to bring about social and economic recovery from the COVID-19 including human resource development, public health, quality infrastructure, digital connectivity. The Thai side also proposed the utilization of BCG Economy Model for the joint cooperation. They also underscored the importance of cooperation through the existing effective cooperation frameworks such as ACMECS and Mekong-Japan Cooperation.

Both sides agreed to have the Joint Meeting on JTPP3 annually to maintain momentum in cooperation with each other and also to make the cooperation be  in line with the global challenges and direction of future cooperation.