Today, hundreds of millions of Americans around the world are celebrating the 246th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America. We at the American Embassy in Bangkok will join that celebration, but we will also mark over 200 years of friendship between the US and Thailand.
In 1818, an American sea captain entered the port of Bangkok for the first time. Fifteen years later, the US and the Kingdom of Siam signed the first treaty between the young United States and an Asian nation. That treaty establishing our bilateral relationship promised "constant peace and perpetual friendship" between our two nations, a friendship that has benefitted both our nations over the past two centuries and that continues to this day.
Most recently, our friendship has been instrumental in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. The United States and Thailand have worked together for the past 60 years to address critical issues affecting public health in a partnership that has saved countless lives through research, development, and treatment breakthroughs. And never has that cooperation been more important than during the last two years, as we responded together to the Covid-19 pandemic. With our partners at the Ministry of Public Health and other Thai ministries, we were able to distribute at no cost 2.5 million doses of lifesaving American mRNA Covid-19 vaccines to residents of Thailand.
Not since the 1918 influenza pandemic has the world faced a global public health crisis of this magnitude and scale. While the 1918 pandemic had a devastating impact, we emerged optimistic about the future. We ushered in the Roaring 20s -- a time of social progress and technological innovation.
This year, we find ourselves, once again, emerging from a global pandemic with optimism for a healthy, peaceful, and prosperous future. We will only reach that future, however, if all countries work together to address our shared challenges as a global community.
Public health is just one of the many important endeavours on which the United States and Thailand are partnering. Even a partial list of our cooperation demonstrates the extraordinary depth and breadth of this relationship.
This year the United States and Thailand will work to promote investment in the region, and we look forward to building, together, an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity that advances both of our countries' interests, as well as those of the entire region. We are fully supporting Thailand in its year as host of Apec and look forward to building on Thailand's success when the United States hosts Apec next year. Over 189 years after the conclusion of our first bilateral treaty to increase business and trade, our economic partnership continues to flourish and reach new heights, with bilateral trade growing by double digits and the United States remaining Thailand's largest export market.
Together, our two countries are also cooperating to mitigate the effects of climate change. We support Thailand's COP26 commitment to cut emissions by 2030 and applaud Thailand for becoming the first country in the world to join the US-led Clean Energy Demand Initiative, which will increase access to renewable energy resources and unlock millions of dollars of US investment in Thailand while advancing our shared goals for combatting climate change.
For over 60 years, the United States and Thailand have maintained a mutually beneficial defenxe alliance, one of five such treaties the United States has in East Asia. This alliance has advanced the interests of both our countries and, by supporting the rules-based international order that has been the basis of the unprecedented prosperity of the past 75 years, has also benefitted every country in the Indo-Pacific region.
Our law enforcement cooperation, especially in the areas of counternarcotics and trafficking-in-persons, has also had a positive impact across the region. We will continue to work with our Thai colleagues to fight the illegal drug trade and prevent human trafficking, to prosecute those who engage in this heinous crime, and to provide assistance to the victims.
The United States government, along with our colleges and universities, engages directly with countless Thai universities and Thai students. With over 40 exchange programmes, we are ensuring the next generation of American and Thai leaders are poised to work together to advance our shared goals.
Public-health, business, climate change, education, military and law enforcement cooperation are only a handful of the areas where we are working together, for the benefit of both the American and Thai people.
Serving as chargé d'affaires has been the honour of my life, and I am deeply proud of what our two countries have accomplished together. Our cooperation, our resiliency, and, most importantly, our enduring friendship has prepared us for a healthy, peaceful, and prosperous future.
To my fellow Americans in Thailand and to our Thai friends and partners, Happy Fourth of July!
Michael Heath is US Embassy Bangkok Chargé d'Affaires.
