WELLINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand and Thailand on Friday launched a strategic partnership, with a view to tripling two-way trade by 2045.
"Thailand's scale, manufacturing capability and regional connections create significant opportunities for New Zealand exporters and companies," New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said in a statement following talks with his Thai counterpart Anutin Charnvirakul in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.
"Upgrading our trade agreement and strengthening supply-chain resilience will help more New Zealand businesses reach Thailand as a gateway to ASEAN's market of more than 600 million consumers," Luxon said.
On top of tripling two-way trade to 13.5 billion NZ dollars (8.1 billion U.S. dollars) by 2045, the two countries also agreed to reopen direct flights by Thai Airways in 2027, strengthen cooperation on border security, customs, immigration and cyber security, and fight scam centers, human trafficking and drug trafficking.
The two leaders issued a joint declaration on the strategic partnership and welcomed the joint plan of action 2026-2030, covering political and security cooperation, trade and innovation, people-to-people links and regional and multilateral cooperation. ■