BANGKOK, Jan 30 — Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered concerned government officials to closely monitor meetings between a high-ranking US embassy officialr with co-leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in the northeast, Deputy Defence Minister/Army Chief Gen Udomdej Sitabutr said today.
The reported meetings between the US embassy official here with co-leaders of the UDD movement opposed to the current caretaker military government came while several prominent UDD members and ministers in the ousted former government were summoned for talks with senior military officers of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) after they had criticised the government.
The meetings also came after Daniel Russel, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, visited Bangkok earlier this week and denounced the continued enforcement of martial law by the NCPO and the recent impeachment of ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Reiterating that NCPO officers only asked for cooperation and to clear misunderstanding by those people during talks, Gen Udomdej said it is still unknown whether more people would be summoned for such talks in the near future.
Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana said about negative comments made by Mr Russel that the US and Thailand have enjoyed warm relations for nearly 200 years, therefore Washington should understand the limits to its comments against the kingdom.
Mr Suwaphan said he did not believe Mr Russel’s comments would affect relations between the two countries. (MCOT online news)
