It is a great pleasure and honour to welcome H.E. Mr. Maris Sangiampongsa, the Foreign Minister of Kingdom of Thailand to the VIF. We are grateful that he has taken time to visit us taking time off his busy schedule.

H.E. Mr. Maris Sangiampongsa assumed his current responsibilities in 2024. He is a distinguished diplomat having served as Thailand Ambassador to Nepal, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and having occupied senior position in the Thailand’s foreign office.

The Honourable Foreign Minister has chosen a very interesting and contemporary themes for his talk namely “Towards the Asian Century of Dhamma" and “Bilateral relations in the context of regional and global situations”. At a time when the world is conflicted, fragmented and witnessing high level of violence and humanitarian crises of massive proportions, the relevance of Asia, and the value of Dharma or Dhamma in the conduct of international discourse cannot be overstated. Buddha’s teaching of the Middle path, Karuna, show the way.

At the Vivekananda International Foundation, we lay great stress on India’s civilisational attributes. In our work, we regularly explore how the values of Indic religions and civilisations can help in avoiding and mitigating conflicts and generating environmental consciousness. The VIF conducts a regular Hindu Buddhist Samvad, started by Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Abe in 2015. We have held Hindu-Buddhist dialogues in India, Myanmar, Mongolia and Japan. We are exploring the possibilities of holding the next edition in Thailand next year. We will be most grateful for the support and encouragement from the Thai government and the institutions.

Last year, India chose the theme of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam for its G-20 presidency. The tag line was "One Earth, One Family, One Future," Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam is mentioned in Mahoupanishad and Hitopadesha. The importance of Dharma in the conduct of daily business of life is underlined in Indian civilisational thinking.

India-Thai relationship is historic and multi-faceted. It is strengthen by the ties of culture and civilisation. His visit will further strengthen the civilisational, cultural, people to people and government to government ties.

Thanking the Foreign Minister once again for being with us today, I now request him to kindly address us.