On 6 May 2026, H.E. Ms. Arjaree Sriratanaban, Ambassador of Thailand to Australia, was invited to deliver opening remarks at the seminar “Mekong Update 2026: Cross‑cutting Challenges in Mainland Southeast Asia,” joining Professor Helen Sullivan, Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian National University (ANU).

On this occasion, the Ambassador noted key challenges facing the Mekong subregion, particularly transnational crime and trans boundary environmental issues. She highlighted Thailand’s efforts to address these challenges and emphasised the importance of regional cooperation, including collaboration with Australia, expressing the hope that the seminar would contribute to continued constructive discourse and to finding forward-looking ideas and recommendations to support the efforts to address the complex and multidimensional challenges faced by the Mekong countries.