Thailand’s press on October 28 featured the second Vietnam - Thailand joint cabinet retreat freshly held in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, with an emphasis on the signing of cooperation agreements and the goal of bringing two-way trade to US$18 billion by 2015.

Major papers like Matichon, Phuchatcan, Thairath and The Nation said that the two countries signed three documents, including the Joint Statement on Thailand-Vietnam Security Outlook for 2012-2016 and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the establishment of the Thailand - Vietnam and the Vietnam-Thailand Business Councils.

According to The Nation, Prime Ministers Yingluck Shinawatra and Nguyen Tan Dung held bilateral talks about the possibility of upgrading Thai-Vietnamese relations into a strategic partnership as well as on other issues, including food, energy, agriculture, ASEAN unity, handling economic crises and natural disasters.

The two PMs agreed that there should be more cooperation channels, not only bilateral or multi-party ones, but also at the ASEAN and international levels. They agreed to set up joint committees to push forward the strategies and hold more bilateral or multi-party talks on rice trading.

Thailand welcomed Vietnam 's acceptance to join the tri-party meeting on rubber trade that Thailand will be hosting in December. Vietnam supported Thailand 's role in ASEAN and in solving the East Sea dispute.

The Nation cited Yingluck as saying that she took this opportunity to move forward rice and rubber cooperation with Vietnam in order to jointly coordinate on stabilising rice and rubber prices, which is beneficial to both sides.