Thailand and Saudi Arabia will hold their first high-level talks in decades on Tuesday when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha travels to Riyadh, more than 30 years after a diplomatic row over a US$20 million jewel theft soured relations.
The “Blue Diamond Affair”, as it became known, began with Thai cleaner Kriangkrai Techamong, who in 1989 stole a hoard of precious gems from the palace of his employer, Prince Faisal bin Fahd: the eldest son of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
Thai police later returned some of the jewels but Saudi officials claimed most were fakes, while the whereabouts of the most precious gem – a rare 50-carat blue diamond said to be the size of an egg – remains unknown.

Grand Barong wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:46 pm A Thieving Thai? How unusual... didn't see that coming

]Saudi Arabia and Thailand have ended a 30-year row over a scandal involving stolen jewels and a string of murders.

The resumption of full diplomatic ties came during a visit to Riyadh by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- More than 30 years after a Thai janitor stole a blue diamond from Saudi royals and the murder of four Saudi diplomats, Riyadh has agreed to stop punishing Bangkok with financial sanctions which cost billions of dollars in lost trade, tourism, and jobs.

Greed, sleaze, betrayal and bloodshed over the still-missing blue diamond and the four unsolved murder cases, resulted in Saudi Arabia's expulsion of more than 200,000 Thai workers, a ban on Saudi tourists traveling to Thailand, and a drop in imports and exports between the two countries.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's surprisingly successful meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at Al Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Jan. 25 suddenly changed all that.

Relations now "must be better than the last 32 years," Prime Minister Prayuth said.

......It was a disaster. Most of the stolen treasures were still missing, the Saudis declared, and most of the gems that were returned were fake — the real jewels had been replaced by paste copies.

....It’s exceptionally unlikely that one of the most rare and coveted gems in the world, a 50-carat blue diamond that nobody had ever seen or heard of before, could have somehow ended up in the possession of Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia without anyone having ever known about it.

.....There is no evidence at all that the blue diamond ever existed, and even if it did, there is also no evidence that it was ever stolen and taken to Thailand. The only reason anyone believes the diamond was real is the claims of the Saudis, and in particular Mohammed Said Khoja who repeatedly insisted this fabled gem had been stolen by the Thais.