Thailand keen to build on close ties with China

During her official visit to China, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said she takes the safety of Chinese citizens in Thailand "seriously" as she looked into the security aspects herself.

"Thai people always come to China and feel like home, so I hope that Chinese people can come to Thailand and feel like home as well," she told China Daily in Beijing on Thursday.

Paetongtarn is paying an official visit to China from Wednesday to Saturday.

Infrastructure, emerging sectors and law enforcement cooperation on telecom scams and online gambling were high on the agenda of her official meetings in Beijing on Thursday.

In the interview, she noted that crimes including online scams are "a very serious topic for everybody around the world", and Thailand has already taken very strong action about this, including setting up a call center for reporting such criminal activities.

"So I think this is a very good start to prevent all the scams that really, really hurt people," she said.

"Since I'm the prime minister, I take this seriously," she said, adding that Thailand and China "have a very awesome relationship for a long time, especially the diplomatic relationship for 50 years now."

"I personally looked into all the securities myself, I talked to the police, I talked to the military and everybody who is involved about this, to be able to take care of everybody that wants to come to Thailand," she said.

Noting that Thai people have also been greatly affected by the scams, she said her country has "got very good cooperation from China and we hope that we can do further together".

"We have a group of people from both countries to talk about all the problems that we both have … I think that is a very good way of finding the solutions together," she said.

"Working together will solve all the problems that we have right now," she added.

When referring to her tight schedule on Thursday, packed with various meetings and events, she said, "It's been a long day for me, but I don't feel like it's a long day at all."

She also delivered her greetings to the people of China for Spring Festival.
"I hope that you have a wonderful year, and China is a very beautiful country," she said.