On 29 March 2025, H.E. Mr. Tanee Sangrat, Ambassador of Thailand to the ROK, presided over the opening ceremony of the first Naud Thai and Thai Cultural Festival, organized by the Nuadthai Volunteer Association in the ROK and the Gapyeong Hyojeong Volunteer. The event was an extension of Gapyeong Hyojeong Cultural Festival, organized at Cheongshim Peace World Center, Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province.

The festival was aimed to promote Traditional Thai Massage, the Thai cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and to showcase various aspects of Thai culture, including traditional performances, Thai cuisine, and tourism. The event featured around 40 Thai food and beverages booths and multiple cultural performances, such as the Four-Region Thai Dance, Isan Long Drum Dance, Fan Dance, Muay Thai Demonstration, Nuadthai Demonstration, and a Songkran Folk Dance. Around 20,000 audiences participated in this event.

Ambassador Tanee congratulated the Nuadthai Volunteer Association, which became the first officially registered association of the Thai community in the ROK on 10 March 2025. The association organized this festival to perform community service in the ROK by providing Thai massage services for groups of elderly people and general public in the ROK and providing Thai massage training class for Korean public as a means of caring their parents and grandparents, highlighting a value of gratitude which is deeply cherished in both Thai and South Korean cultures.

The Ambassador also highlighted the close and cordial relations between Thailand and the ROK, recalling Thailand's participation in the Korean War and the shared cultural values of both nations. Ambassador further emphasized that at present, under visa exemption agreement between Thailand and ROK , both nationals can visit to each other countries on tourism purpose without visa for up to 90 days. Last year, the number of Korean visitors to Thailand exceeded 1.86 million (ranked fourth among all inbound tourists), while over 323,000 Thai tourists visited Korea. Ambassador Tanee encouraged more Koreans to visit Thailand and also officially declared 29 March of every year as "Nuadthai Day in the ROK”.