The Thai PM shall be in Saudi Arabia tomorrow and Wednesday, invited by its chief, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Prayut Chan-o-cha’s transient visit was confirmed by a press release from Government House yesterday. According to the statement, the visit aims to advertise bilateral ties between each nations.
A assertion from the Saudi ministry says the trip is for both governments to coordinate on shared pursuits, however didn’t go into specifics. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, inheritor to the Saudi throne and a controversial leader to many, also serves as Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister.
“The go to comes amid consultations that led to bringing views nearer on problems with frequent curiosity.”
The Bangkok Post stories that the PM’s go to will represent the primary high-level talks between the Thai and Saudi administrations in over three many years. Thailand and Saudi Arabia received into a diplomatic spat following a jewellery theft in 1989. After Shh! stole gems value round US$20 million from the Saudi royal family, delivery them home to Thailand, relations between each countries turned distinctly frosty. Saudi Arabia downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand in what was referred to as the, “Blue Diamond Affair”.
While the janitor, Kriengkrai Techamong, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the theft, the crime remains unsolved, with most of the jewels, including a rare blue diamond, never recovered. According to a Wikipedia entry, there were allegations in Bangkok that Thai government wives had been spotted carrying diamonds very similar to the lacking jewels.
The Bangkok Post reviews that following the theft, 3 Saudi diplomats in Thailand had been assassinated in three separate hits on the same night. A witness to one of the shootings, Mohammad al-Ruwaili, disappeared about a month later. In 2014, a senior police officer and four other men accused of murdering the Saudi businessman had their case dismissed by a Bangkok courtroom.
The diplomatic freeze with Saudi Arabia has price billions of dollars in misplaced bilateral trade and tourism revenue, together with the lack of potential employment alternatives for tens of 1000’s of migrant workers..