On 10-11 June 2025, Mr. Bolbongse Vangphaen, Director-General of the Department of ASEAN Affairs, represented  the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs  at the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (ASEAN SOM), the ASEAN Plus Three Senior Officials’ Meeting (APT SOM), the East Asia Summit Senior Officials’ Meeting (EAS SOM), and the ASEAN Regional Forum Senior Officials’ Meeting (ARF SOM) in Penang, Malaysia. The Meetings served as preparatory sessions for the upcoming 58^th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and related meetings scheduled for 8-11 July 2025 in Kuala Lumpur. The ASEAN SOM also followed up on key ASEAN priorities, including Timor Leste’s accession to ASEAN within this year, revitalization of the ARF, and ASEAN’s relations with external partners.

At the APT SOM, Thailand underscored the importance of the ASEAN Plus Three as a functional cooperation framework for jointly addressing regional challenges and crises as well as promoted key priorities such as regional economic integration, green transition, and digital transformation. At the EAS SOM, Thailand joined the discussions on ways to strengthen the EAS process and advance the implementation of the EAS Plan of Action (2024–2028) as well as regional and international issues. At the ARF SOM, Thiland joined discussions on enhancing cooperation under confidence-building measures (CBMs) towards preventive diplomacy (PD), and expediting the implementation of the Hanoi Plan of Action II (HPOA II) 2020-2025. The meeting also exchanged views on important regional and international developments, including geopolitical volatility, situations in the South China Sea, Korean Peninsula, Unkraine and Myanmar as well as issues of common concerns such as climate change, cyber threats, counter-terrorism and transnational crime.