PM Prayut holds unscheduled meeting with US CIA head

PM Prayut Chan-o-cha had an officially unscheduled meeting this morning with David Cohen, the deputy director of the US Central Intelligence Agency. The unannounced meeting took place this morning when the deputy director of the CIA dropped in on the prime minister at Government House.

The unscheduled meeting between the Thai prime minister and the American intelligence official was held at 9:30 am at the Thai Khu Fa building at Government House. The meeting ran for about 45 minutes total.

While he was on the premises, the CIA deputy director held several other meetings. At Command Building 1, deputy director Cohen met with Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, and also had talks with National Security Council Secretary-General Supot Malaniyom at the Red Building.

As could be expected in regards to high-level talks with US covert intelligence leaders and top Thai political leaders, the unscheduled meeting and all the participants in meetings were heavily guarded. Security prevented reporters from much coverage of the meeting and they could only stand some distance away, taking photos from afar.

No details on what the meetings were pertaining to or what topics were discussed at the meetings were made public. It is unclear whether the unscheduled meeting was hastily arranged last minute and, as such, were left off the prime minister’s schedule, or if the meetings were planned to be covert and intentionally left off the official schedule for the day.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post