May 18, 2011, Updated September 12, 2012

Israel’s Rambam Medical Center has signed an agreement with Thailand’s Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI) to begin cooperation in cancer research with Thailand.

CRI President Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol (the daughter of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit) and who is also a doctor of chemistry, attended the signing ceremony in Haifa.

“I have no doubt that in ten years we [will see] many breakthroughs in the field of oncology treatment,” said Director of Rambam Hospital in Haifa Professor Rafi Beyar. “This is an historic moment. Rambam is proud and happy to cooperate with the central hospital in Thailand to treat cancer, in research, just as we are proud that we have cooperation with other leading institutions in the world, such as Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and others. “

During her visit to Israel, Thai Princess Chulabhorn also met with President Shimon Peres. She told Peres, “In my heart I feel half Israeli. I think like an Israeli. I visited here for the first time in the 1970s, and since then I keep looking for opportunities to return.”

The princess said that she even added an Israeli name to her name, Tzila, and that is how she referred to herself when she signed the president’s guest book.

Prior to the meeting, the princess was involved in a traffic accident and was lightly injured. Doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital tried to get her to stay at the hospital for testing, but the princess insisted on going to meet Peres.

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