The EU Member States may soon sign the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation with Thailand, according to a document circulated in the Council of the EU. Negotiations for the agreement started in 2004, but the signing was suspended in 2014 due to the coup in Bangkok.
Five years later, in 2019, the Council of the EU judged that the country’s political situation had improved sufficiently to strengthen its relationship with Thailand. The negotiations were finally concluded in June 2022, and the Member States are expected to adopt a decision shortly to approve and sign the agreement.
The Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation will allow for greater cooperation in several sectors, including tourism, employment, education, migration, transport, human rights and the environment. It also aims to maintain a political dialogue between the two sides, including on security issues. For example, the EU and Thailand want to strengthen their cooperation on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, counter-terrorism, anti-corruption and the fight against organised crime.
While in 2019, the Council of the EU had stressed the need to also resume the discussions on the EU-Thailand trade agreement that started in 2013, these are still at a standstill.
See the proposal to sign the agreement: https://aeur.eu/f/2tz (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)