Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith will visit Thailand for the 2^nd Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Summit, the objective of which is to strengthen cooperation among member countries and adopt key declarations to shape common goals for Asia.

The Prime Minister and his delegation will attend the 2^nd ACD Summit to be held in Bangkok on Oct 9-10 in response to an invitation by his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha, according to the Press Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) was inaugurated in June 2002 in Cha-Am, Thailand, where 18 Asian Foreign Ministers met for the first time. The ACD is a continent-wide forum and the first of its kind in Asia.

More specifically, the ACD aims to constitute the missing link in Asia by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian Community without duplicating other organizations or creating a bloc against others.

A key principle is to consolidate Asian strengths and fortify Asia's competitiveness by maximizing the diversity and rich resources evident in Asia. The core values of the ACD are positive thinking, informality, voluntarism, non-institutionalization, openness, respect for diversity, the comfort level of member countries, and the evolving nature of the ACD process.

Since its inception, the ACD has rapidly developed in two dimensions, namely in dialogue and projects.

Under the ACD framework, the following twelve cooperation areas are currently operational: agriculture, education, energy, environment, finance, human resource development, information technology, disasters, poverty alleviation, road safety, tourism and connectivity cooperation.