Saudi Crown Prince will attend Apec Summit, Don confirms

Don confirmed the information circulating via news channels that the Crown Prince would arrive in Thailand with about 800 followers after attending the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

“Crown Prince Salman’s visit is a follow up on the state visit made by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha to Saudi Arabia in January this year,” said Don, who doubles as a Deputy Prime Minister.

“During that visit both parties had discussed a road map to resume Thai-Saudi relations. The Crown Prince’s visit aims to make all cooperation under this road map official,” he said.

“The Crown Prince will visit Thailand as a guest of the government. We will hold a press conference regarding the visit once details are finalised,” Don said.

Regarding rumours that several leaders of Apec nations will not attend the meeting in Bangkok, Don said he currently cannot say who will attend or when would they arrive, but there is not a single country that said it would not take part.

He added that if any leader is not able to attend the meeting, they would normally send a delegate or representative instead of the country skipping the event entirely.

“I insist that every member of Apec will attend, either by a leader or a delegate,” said Don.

Separately, the deputy prime minister said he was ready to submit his list of assets to the National Anti-Corruption Commission again should the commission require the list after the Constitutional Court ruled last month that Prayut’s premiership started in April 2017 when the current Constitution was promulgated.

Don and five other ministers had submitted their asset reports to the commission before the date when they were part of the cabinet appointed by the Prayut-led National Council for Peace and Order after the 2014 military coup.