India News, New Delhi, June 1 : A bilateral free trade deal, education, tourism and security cooperation between India and Thailand will form the focus of a daylong visit by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra here Friday. He will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and review bilateral, regional and international issues. Manmohan Singh will host a dinner for the visiting dignitary.

Shinawatra will also meet Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh. An agreement on an educational exchange programme is expected to be signed by the two countries. "This is a document that will cover exchange of conferences, exhibitions, seminars, joint research programmes and so on," external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters Wednesday.

During a meeting in Bangkok in July last year, Manmohan Singh and Shinawatra had agreed to set up a free trade area that would become functional by Sep 1. The two sides agreed that tariffs would be brought down by 50 percent in the first year, by 75 percent in the second year and completely eliminated from Sep 1, 2006.

By 2010, India and Thailand hope to have a comprehensive free trade agreement covering all items. The two countries had set a March deadline for an agreement, but talks derailed over the number of items in the sensitive list. India's "Look East" policy and Thailand's "Look West" orientation have consolidated relations between the two countries. Trade between Thailand and India hit $2 billion last year, an increase of 34 percent from 2003.

[India News] Diplomatic and business relations between India and Thailand received a big boost after the end of the Cold War and India's dialogue partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and membership of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The distrust of the Cold War period dissipated after a landmark exchange of visits by India's then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 and Thai prime minister Gen. Chatichai Choonhavan in 1989.

The formation of the sub-regional grouping Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and the launching of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation in November 2000 are other significant milestones in India-Thailand relations.