Thailand's King Makes First State Visit to Vietnam in 50 Years of Ties
Vajiralongkorn visited Vietnam twice as crown prince. This is his first trip as king, and the first state visit by a Thai king and queen since the two countries established ties.
[Thailand's King Makes First State Visit to Vietnam in 50 Years of Ties]
Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida began a three-day state visit to Vietnam on September 14. They came at the invitation of Tô Lâm, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and State President, and his wife. Vietnam and Thailand established diplomatic relations in 1976, so this year marks 50 years.
No Thai king and queen had made a state visit to Vietnam since then. Vajiralongkorn himself is no stranger to the country. He visited twice as crown prince, in 1992 and 1997. This is his first visit since taking the throne.
The program includes talks with Tô Lâm and his wife, meetings with Prime Minister Lê Minh Hưng and National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn, a dinner hosted by Tô Lâm, and a cultural performance at Ngọc Sơn Temple. On the last day, the royal couple is scheduled to visit Quán Sứ Pagoda, home to the central body of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, and then the Thai Language and Culture Centre at Hanoi University.
During the Cold War, Thailand was a U.S. ally that backed Washington's push against communism in Southeast Asia, and its ties with communist Indochina, meaning Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, were cool. That began to shift in the late 1980s, when Thai Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan called for turning Indochina "from battlefields into marketplaces." Under him, trade and economic interests came first, ahead of the Cold War thinking of the military and the bureaucracy.
Diplomatic ties dated back to 1976, but normalization only started in 1989. Relations deepened further after Vietnam joined ASEAN. In 2013, during a visit to Thailand by then-Party chief Nguyễn Phú Trọng, the two became strategic partners, the first pair of ASEAN members to form such a partnership with each other. Last year, during a visit to Vietnam by then-Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, they upgraded ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Thailand is now Vietnam's largest trading partner within ASEAN, with two-way trade of about USD 22.1 billion in 2025.
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