Zhang Zhili, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, met separately with Narumon Pinyosinwat, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand, Tin Htut, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation of Myanmar, and Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, in Kunming on Nov. 21. The visiting officials were attending the 3rd Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting.  

In his meeting with Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat, Vice Minister Zhang expressed his appreciation for Thailand’s strong commitment to subregional cooperation and friendly agricultural relations with China. He noted that 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. He also said China is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation with Thailand in areas such as animal disease prevention and control, digitalization of agriculture, and green development, so as to imbue the concept of “China and Thailand as one family” with new meaning. Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat fully agreed with Vice Minister Zhang’s views and suggestions, saying that Thailand stands ready to work with China to take bilateral agricultural cooperation to a new level. 

In his meeting with Deputy Minister Tin Htut, Vice Minister Zhang spoke highly of the fruitful results of China–Myanmar cooperation in areas such as crop breeding and animal disease prevention and control. He said China looks forward to carrying out all-round, close cooperation with Myanmar to achieve more profound and concrete results. Deputy Minister Tin Htut expressed his appreciation for China’s support for Myanmar’s agricultural development and food security, saying that Myanmar hopes to finalize with China their next cooperative steps at an early date. 

In his meeting with Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Minister Zhang suggested that the two countries make full use of bilateral and multilateral mechanisms such as the China–Vietnam Joint Committee on Agricultural Cooperation and the GMS Working Group on Agriculture, enhance technology and people-to-people exchange in areas such as rice breeding, animal and plant disease prevention and control, and fish restocking and release. He also suggested that Vietnam actively engage with pilot free trade zones in Yunnan and Guangxi to foster stable growth in agricultural trade between China and Vietnam. Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam said Vietnam stands ready to work in tandem with China to strengthen exchange and mutual learning, and advance the transformation of agrifood systems in the subregion.