New Delhi, April 1: India and Thailand's warm bilateral relations are heading for an upgrade with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Southeast Asian nation.

PM Modi's two-day visit to Thailand from Thursday onward offers a chance to enhance India's economic and commercial relations with the Southeast Asian country.

PM Modi will also be enhancing India's deep civilizational linkages, maritime connectivity, and cross-cultural exchanges with member countries of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) grouping during his visit to Bangkok to attend the 6th BIMSTEC Summit.

During the visit, a Maritime Transport Agreement with the BIMSTEC countries will be signed at the summit in Bangkok.

Established in June 1997, the BIMSTEC regional grouping forms a unique link between South and South-East Asia, with five members from South Asia -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka -- and two from South-East Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand.

Besides BIMSTEC, cooperation between India and Thailand exists in various other multilateral forums like ASEAN, East Asia Summit, Mekong Ganga Cooperation, and Indian Ocean Rim Association. Thailand is the third largest economy in ASEAN and India's fourth largest trading partner in the region after Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia in the region.

Reaffirming the age-old cultural and religious ties, India recently sent the holy relics of Lord Buddha to Thailand.

India’s 'Look East' policy (since 1993) and Thailand's 'Look West' policy (since 1996) have metamorphosed into India's 'Act East' and Thailand's 'Act West' policies and are strongly contributing to the consolidation of bilateral relations, including economic and commercial linkages. India’s partnership with Thailand also has a strong regional dimension in the context of India's engagement with ASEAN and membership of groupings such as BIMSTEC, Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) and Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD).

The defence cooperation between the two countries is also growing steadily and forms an important aspect of the multifaceted relationship. (IANS)

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