Premier Li Keqiang met with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in Beijing on April 26.

Premier Li hailed the high-level development of China-Thailand relations, saying their traditional friendship has been constantly cemented in recent years. China supports Thailand’s choice of its own development route and is willing to enhance political trust and high-level exchanges with Thailand.

China is ready to deepen pragmatic cooperation with Thailand, align the Belt and Road Initiative with Thailand’s development strategy, such as speeding up the Sino-Thai railway project, the Premier said.

China backs Thailand to be the rotating chair of ASEAN, and to exert more important role in regional cooperation. China is ready to work with Thailand to prepare the series of meetings for East Asia cooperation to push China-ASEAN relations to a higher level, he said.

Moreover, the Premier said, China is willing to further cooperate with Thailand under the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism to promote stability and development of the region.

For his part, Prayut said Thailand highly appreciates the foresight of Chinese leaders, which has made China achieve tremendous development within a short time. China always adopts a constructive and active attitude in developing relations with its surrounding nations.

The Belt and Road Initiative is beneficial for the region’s development, and every side is willing to play an active role under this framework, he said.

Thailand is willing to synergize its development strategy with the Belt and Road Initiative, learn from China’s experience in economic development and poverty alleviation, enhance communication in terms of governance experience, and intensify cooperation under the ASEAN and LMC frameworks to jointly push forward development and prosperity for the region.