Thailand and China yesterday agreed on to waive visa requirements for each other’s nationals to facilitate travel and tourism between the two countries, hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Parnpree Bahiddha-nukara and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) signed the mutual visa exemption, which takes effect on March 1, at a ceremony after meeting in Bangkok.
“This visa-free era will bring people-to-people exchanges to a new height,” Wang told a joint news conference.
Photo: EPA-EFE
China was a top source for Thailand’s tourism industry before the pandemic, but the return of Chinese tourists to Thailand has been slow.
“There will be a big increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand,” Wang said.
The number of Chinese tourists to Thailand plunged to 3.5 million last year from 11 million in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beijing and Bangkok also pledged to speed-up the construction of the China-Thailand railway and work together in combating transnational crimes, Wang said.
He and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held talks in Bangkok on Friday and Saturday about issues including bilateral relations, Taiwan and Iran.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home