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The past week saw Thailand being the host of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation (BIMSTEC) whereby leaders of 7 nations in the grouping were gathered in Bangkok, but one foreign leader got a reception that befits the power and importance that Thailand wants to give to that country.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the economic power in the west of Thailand, got a treatment befitting that many other nations including the long-time allies such as United States and China, would feel envious.
Indian Prime Minister Modi was received by various ministers upon his arrival in Bangkok and then was given the state visit at the Government House by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
During the time Indian PM Modi was in Bangkok, the Thai side put its best foot forward in helping make sure that the Indian PM was given felt at home away from home.
During his various speeches, the Indian PM mentioned how honored he was to be in Thailand, a country that shares centuries of cultural heritage.
Even after Indian PM’s meeting with His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua and Her Majesty Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana, Modi said in his social media post “we talked about the robust friendship between India and Thailand and how to make it even stronger.”
To give the Indian PM another level of importance the Thai Prime Minister went the extra mile to take her Indian counterpart to a tour of Wat Pho, an undertaking that no Thai Prime Minister has done in recent history.
When asked why this move to showcase Wat Pho was undertaken, the Thai side has said that it was because of the 107+ million followers of the X (formerly Twitter) account of PM Modi. This move to go to Wat Pho, authorities said, would help boost tourists from India into Thailand.
Thailand, which relies heavily on tourism for its economic momentum, saw about 2.2 million Indian tourists arrive in 2024 from 1.6 million seen in 2023, and the numbers are expected to rise this year well above 2.2 million this year.
As part of the move to boost Indian tourist numbers, Thailand in 2024 decided to waive the visa requirements for Indian citizens, and this prompted an influx of Indian tourists.
The move to use the 107+ million followers of Indian PM Modi is a smart move, but what none of the political analysts are reading into is the fact that with Thailand going out of the way to welcome and offer the red carpet to India, Thailand is trying to also lure the 1.4 billion people of India.
India’s economy is mainly driven by domestic consumption with exports accounting for just about 22% of the gross domestic product (GDP), whereas in Thailand it accounts for just over 65% of the GDP.
With the world now going on a tailspin after the United States (USA) came out with its ‘reciprocal tariff’, Thailand’s economic outlook looks bleaker than even during the Covid-19 pandemic. The reason for this is that during the Covid-19 outbreak, the then government had the opportunity to be able to borrow and spend their way out, which they did with the 3-trillion Baht of bonanza that they undertook.
As Thailand needs to look for ‘newer’ markets to export its way out of the possible impact from the fallout of the drop in exports to the US, there is only one market that stands out – India.
Thailand exports to the US in 2024 was at just over US$ 55 billion, accounting for 18.3% of total exports. With this number looking far more difficult to achieve in 2025, Thailand needs to look for new export market and what better market than India.
Products made in Thailand are considered to be of very high quality in India and therefore there is a great opportunity for Thailand to tap the Indian market.
Bilateral trade between Thailand and India stood at a mere US$ 17 billion in 2024 and that is very small when considering the size of the market. These numbers are less than half of what the bilateral trade was between Thailand and China.
The US$ 17 billion bilateral trade is with the free trade agreement (FTA) not being fully implemented. Currently the Thailand-India FTA has been operating on ‘early harvest’ which has been in place for 83 items for the past 21-years.
The red-carpet welcome to Indian PM Modi that has not been seen in Thailand in decades is therefore a good move by Thai PM Paetongtarn to expand the ‘early harvest’ scheme to include more items on the FTA and spur the trade and investments from India into Thailand.
Now that PM Paetongtarn has helped paved the way to smoothen the process and this initiative needs to be pushed so that the goodwill built during Indian PM Modi’s visit is not lost in vain.