As India and Thailand prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties next year, the Indian ambassador to Thailand has urged the two countries to expand economic cooperation after years of stagnation.
"Ties between India and Thailand have been long and warm, but it is strange that our bilateral trade volume has been stuck in range of US$8-9 billion per year for the last five years," Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi told Asia Focus.
He said the global economic slowdown and India's stagnant exports had held back progress. To create new momentum, he said more Indian delegations would visit Thailand and vice versa. "Economic cooperation is an area where we could do more together," he said, adding that trade between the two nations was expected to reach $20 billion by 2020.
Mr Bishnoi said a series of events to promote trade would take place in the coming months. "India is such a large country, it makes sense to break it down to more manageable units. We'll do events attracting Thai investors in each state one by one, starting with West Bengal later this year."
Many major Indian corporate groups are represented in Thailand, such as Tata Motors, Tata Steel and the Kirloskar Brothers, he said. "Thailand is a great place for Indian investors. We have no have doubt in Thailand's future."
Asked whether he has received any complaints from the Indian investors, Mr Bishnoi said some mentioned rising labour costs, but the issue was "understandable".
In a separate commercial development, India has agreed to buy at least 10,000 tonnes of Thai rubber per month. "Natural rubber from Thailand is good quality," Mr Bishnoi said, adding that his country also imported rubber from Indonesia and Malaysia.
India needs at least 900,000 to 1.1 million tonnes of rubber per year, but domestic supplies continue to shrink. Satish Sehgal, president of the Indian-Thai Business Association, took a Thai delegation to India to meet potential buyers in June this year.
At the same time, India is increasing its exports of Basmati rice to the Kingdom, while the Thai government is working to expand its sales of long-grain white Rice and fruit to India.
Mr Bishnoi said work to improve bilateral trade was moving alongside cooperation on regional security as India is one of Asean's dialogue partners.
During Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's visit to India in June, he and his counterpart, Narendra Modi, pledged to step up their security collaboration, both on land and sea.
"India will have greater defence cooperation with Thailand than with any other country in Southeast Asia," Mr Bishnoi said, adding that India's military exercises with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam all helped contribute to the regional security of the Asean bloc.
Other regular military activities between the two countries include an annual army exercise that took place in Krabi three months ago and an annual visit of 10 to 20 Indian ships to Thailand.
India is also acting as an observer at the annual Cobra Gold joint military exercise. Recently, India and Thailand held a meeting of their joint task force to strengthen maritime and defence cooperation which covers a wide range of issues, including maritime safety in the Indian Ocean, anti-terror measures and disaster management. Both also agreed to hold naval exercises in the Andaman Sea.
Discussing air links, Mr Bishnoi said he had proposed to the president of Thai Airways International that it launch flights from Bangkok to smaller Indian cities such as Amritsar in Punjab.
"Taking holidays in Thailand could be cheaper than travelling in India," he said, adding that 150 flights a week were already in place to serve a growing number of visitors from both countries.
India has decided to offer double-entry e-tourist visas to Thai citizens, especially those who want to visit Buddhist heritage sites. "Visas are not an issue between India and Thailand at all," he said.
Furthermore, Mr Bishnoi said he was impressed with Thai academic interest in India and its culture. "There are very few countries in the world that focus on Indian studies as much as Thailand does," he said.
Leading universities in Thailand, including Thammasat, Chulalongkorn and Mahidol universities, offer Indian studies programmes. Academic and research activities involving Ayurveda (a type of complementary and alternative medicine that originated in India) have started at Rangsit University, while vernacular languages such as Sanskrit and Hindi are taught at Silpakorn University.
A new Indian centre is also scheduled to open at Chiang Mai University, the ambassador added.
About 6,000 Thai students, both at the secondary school and university level, study in India. "We believe that those who study in India will become ambassadors for India themselves. So, India is very happy to have Thai youngsters studying in our country," he said.
As part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of diplomatic ties next year, Mr Bishnoi said a Festival of Indi