Myanmar, Thailand Hold 9th High-Level Committee Meeting to Strengthen Bilateral Military Cooperation

THE 9th Thailand-Myan­mar High-Level Commit­tee (HLC) Meeting was held yesterday at the Grand Ball­room of the Chatrium Grand Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, with senior military officers from both countries in at­tendance.

The Myanmar delega­tion was led by Command­er-in-Chief of Defence Ser­vices General Ye Win Oo, while the Thai side was led by Chief of Defence Forces of the Royal Thai Armed Forces General Ukris Boontanondha. Chief of the General Staff (Army, Navy and Air) General Ko Ko Oo and senior officers from the Office of the Com­mander-in-Chief and the Royal Thai Armed Forces also attended.

In his opening remarks, General Ukris Boontanon­dha said the HLC serves as the highest-level mech­anism for cooperation be­tween the two armed forc­es and plays an important role in strengthening their longstanding friendship and close relations. He high­lighted the shared objec­tives of maintaining peace, stability and security along the two countries’ border areas and promoting better livelihoods, prosperity and sustainable development for their peoples.

General Ye Win Oo said the meeting aimed to en­hance cooperation between the two armed forces, estab­lish guidelines for military cooperation in addressing security issues along the border, and coordinate the continued work of the Re­gional Border Committee (RBC) and Township Border Committee (TBC). He also emphasized cooperation in maintaining peace, stability, security and socioeconom­ic development in Myan­mar-Thailand border areas.

The meeting reviewed the outcomes of the 38th Re­gional Border Committee meeting held in Kengtung from 29 June to 1 July, as well as issues discussed by the Joint Secretariat Meet­ing. The two sides also dis­cussed continued coopera­tion and regular exchanges between their armed forces.

During the HLC meet­ing, the two sides discussed a wide range of issues, in­cluding reciprocal goodwill visits, military meetings and exchanges, agricultural cooperation, education and training, counterterrorism, military cultural exchanges, military medical coopera­tion, humanitarian assis­tance and disaster relief.

Other areas included border stability and rule of law, narcotics control, com­bating online crime, mar­itime security and safety, prevention of transbound­ary forest fires and haze pol­lution, flood early-warning systems, and cooperation to address pollution in bound­ary rivers and waterways.

The two HLC chair­men approved the matters discussed at the meeting and signed and exchanged the agreements reached at the 9th Thailand-Myanmar HLC Meeting. Commemo­rative insignia were also ex­changed. The Thai Chief of Defence Services addition­ally handed over two sets of air-pollution monitoring equipment to the Myanmar Commander-in-Chief of De­fence Services.

The Joint Secretariat Meeting for the 9th Thai­land-Myanmar HLC was held in Bangkok from 16 to 19 August. The 10th Thai­land-Myanmar High-Lev­el Committee Meeting is scheduled to be hosted by Myanmar in 2027. — MNA/ ST