Her Excellency Ms. Busadee Santipitaks, Deputy Permanent Secretary as the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, together with His Excellency Mr. Darm Boontham, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Thailand to the OIC, attended the Opening Ceremony of the 15th Islamic Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Banjul, the Republic of The Gambia on 4 May 2024.
The Summit is held under the theme “Enhancing Unity and Solidarity through Dialogue for Sustainable Development”. While the Summit focused on the situation in the Middle East, especially the situation between Israel and Hamas and the status of Palestine, the Summit also attached importance to issues of common concern for the Muslim World such as economic cooperation, social matters, food security, humanitarian assistance, plights of the Rohingya people, status of youth and women, science and technology, as well as Islamophobia and hate speech.
The OIC with 57 Member States, is the most important International Organization of the Muslim World. Thailand is among the 5 Observers of the OIC which was granted the Observer status on 1 October 1998. Thailand joined the OIC primarily to exchange knowledge and better understanding of the Muslim community, expand channels of cooperation with the Muslim World, and enhance communication and collaboration between the Thai Muslim community and other Muslim communities around the world. Thailand highly values her cooperation with the OIC and has always participated in all the relevant OIC meetings. (MFA)
