Since the Covid-19 outbreak happened, it’s been hard for Singaporeans to travel to Thailand and vice versa.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) talked to their counterparts on Wednesday (26 Aug), and promised to speed up talks on having a green lane between Singapore and Thailand.
This means that essential travel will be possible in the future, with the necessary safeguards.
The video conference call was co-chaired between Permanent Secretary Chee Wee Kiong from Singapore and Permanent Secretary Busaya Mathelin on the Thailand side.
During the call, Singapore and Thailand shared both their expertise in fighting Covid-19, and mutually contributed the following:
They also agreed to speed up talks in setting up a Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL) arrangement.
Similar to other Green Lane arrangements with China and Malaysia, there’ll be health safeguards in place to ensure imported cases don’t spread Covid-19 to the communities.
Besides Covid-19, the two sides talked about cooperating in more aspects.
They support ASEAN efforts to fight the pandemic and keep economies open and connected.
They also see it as important that ties between ASEAN countries are strengthened.
After the green lane arrangements with China and Malaysia, Singapore is looking to set up more green lanes — with Thailand looking like a likely candidate.
We’re also going to start talking to Indonesia to set up a green lane with them.
However, it seems Thailand may be the next successful country after these talks.
This highlights the importance of diplomacy with other countries and fostering friendly ties with them, as Singapore depends heavily on them for various sectors.
Notably, the airline and tourism industries.
Featured image adapted from Twitter.
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