The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that it has established diplomatic relations with Thailand, Palestinian new agencies reported.
According to Ma'an, relations were officially upgraded on Wednesday, but will be managed at the Palestinian embassy in Malaysia until an embassy is opened in Bangkok.
PA Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki and Thailand's Deputy Foreign Minister Jullapon Nosrichai met in July and agreed to establish full diplomatic relations, Ma'an reported.
In January, Thailand joined a long list of countries that have recognized a Palestinian state along pre-1967 lines. Bangkok's mission at the UN in New York said in a letter that it "officially recognized the state of Palestine and has initiated the process to establish and formalize diplomatic relations" with it at the earliest opportunity, official PA news agency WAFA reported at the time.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas subsequently thanked the east Asian country as its envoy to the United Nations officially announced the move.
Maliki called the recognition "an achievement for Palestinian diplomacy" and noted it was the first such recognition of 2012, according to WAFA.
Over 100 countries thus far have endorsed the Palestinians’ 1988 unilateral declaration of independent statehood.