BANGKOK — National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân arrived in Bangkok on Sunday afternoon at the start of her trip to Thailand to attend the 40th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA 40) and to pay an official visit to the host country from August 25-30.
The trip is being made at the invitation of Chuan Leekpai, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Thailand and also Chair of AIPA 40.
She was welcomed at Don Mueang airport by many high-ranking officials of Thailand, and Vietnamese Ambassador to the country Nguyễn Hải Bằng.
The AIPA 40 will be held under the theme of “Advancing Parliamentary Partnership for Sustainable Community”.
Ngân's participation at the AIPA 40 continues to affirm the Vietnamese NA’s role and position in the organisation, as well as Việt Nam’s active and responsible participation in building an ASEAN Community of peace, prosperity and sustainability.
NA Chairwoman Ngân's presence at AIPA 40 and visit to Thailand is to affirm the Vietnamese Party and State’s external policy of active and proactive integration into the region and the world, further strengthening Việt Nam-Thailand strategic partnership.
The NA leader’s Thailand visit is taking place in the context that bilateral relations are growing strongly across multiple fields, especially since they were promoted to a strategic partnership in 2013.
Within the framework of the visit, the Vietnamese top legislator is scheduled to meet and hold talks with many Thai leaders, assessing the implementation of the mechanisms for cooperation between the two countries, and exchanging ideas on measures to strengthen bilateral cooperation and that at regional and international forums, as well as on a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern.
Việt Nam and Thailand established their diplomatic ties in 1976 and upgraded the relationship to strategic partnership level on the occasion of the Thailand visit by Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng in 2013.
Both sides effectively carried out the action programme to realise bilateral strategic partnership for the 2014-18 period and are working on contents of the action programme for the 2019-24 period. 
Thailand is now Việt Nam's largest trade partner in ASEAN while Việt Nam is Thailand’s second largest importer in ASEAN and the seventh largest globally.
Two-way trade hit US$17.2 billion last year and is expected to rise to $20 billion by 2020.
The two countries are among the most active members of sub-regional cooperation mechanisms and closely working together in the fields of labour, culture, sports, tourism and people-to-people exchange. 
There are over 100,000 overseas Vietnamese in Thailand, who have made important contributions to socio-economic development in the host nation. 
Ties between the two legislatures are growing with mutual support at international inter-parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. 
Friendship parliamentarians’ groups of the two nations have facilitated exchanges. During recent meetings, Thai parliamentarians expressed their interest in promoting bilateral collaboration across rice export, economic and trade activities, culture-education, and science-technology. — VNS