On the morning of July 9, Ambassador Lyu Jian held a brief meeting with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who came to supervise the handling of the capsizing incident, at the search and rescue command center. Thai Deputy Prime Minister General Chatchai Sarikalya, Minister of the Interior Anupong Paochinda, Minister of Tourism and Sports Weerasak Kowsurat, Minister of Transportation Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army Chalermchai Sitthisart, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Navy Adm. Naris Pratoomsuwan, head of the Chinese government’s joint working group Mr. Chen Xiongfeng, Defence, Naval and Air Attache of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand Major General Wu Xiaoyi, and Consul-General Li Chunlin of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand were at the meeting.
Ambassador Lyu said that China was deeply shocked and saddened by the extraordinarily serious incident. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang attached great importance to the incident and made important instructions, and the entire Chinese public were highly concerned about it. Your Excellency has given multiple instructions on searching for the missing, offering medical treatment to the injured and addressing the aftermath. The Chinese side appreciated it. What is crucial in the next step is that we should deal with the incident quickly and properly, console the bereaved families, and take concrete measures to ensure the safety of Chinese tourists. It is hoped that Your Excellency will clearly instruct the relevant departments of Thailand to further intensify their efforts, find out the cause of and those accountable for the incident as soon as possible, and make public the findings after communication with the Chinese side. The Thai side is expected to bring out a plan to deal with follow-up matters that could show their sincerity. At the same time, the relevant departments should be asked to share information with the Chinese side, strengthen the cooperation mechanism on tourism safety, and prevent the similar incident from happening again.
Prime Minister Prayut expressed deep sorrow about the incident, and said that the Thai government and the relevant departments attach great importance to the disposal of the incident. He himself has made overall arrangement. The Thai side will go all out to search and rescue, treat the injured Chinese and the bereaved families like family, and provide all assistance and convenience. The Thai police will identify the cause of the incident as soon as possible, find out who are to blame and hold them accountable. The Thai side will take the incident as a lesson, take practical measures and actions to improve the tourism safety environment, comprehensively evaluate the existing management mechanism of tourism safety, raise safety standards, strengthen the safety inspection on boats and improve the early warning mechanism on sea conditions. The Thai side is willing to strengthen tourism safety cooperation with China, provide a safer environment for Chinese tourists, and prevent such incident from happening again. Prayut emphasized that China and Thailand are like one family, and the Thai side will try its best to deal with the incident. It is hoped that the friendly relations between the two countries will not be affected by it.
After the meeting, Ambassador Lyu Jian and Prime Minister Prayut visited the injured and some of the bereaved families at Phuket Provincial Hospital and Vachira Phuket Hospital.
