Phuket: Yingluck Shinawatra to meet Queen on Britain trip
THAILAND: Yingluck Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister, will meet the Queen on her official visit to the UK this week, as she attempts to burnish her monarchist credentials within her deeply divided homeland, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Monday 12 November 2012, 01:11PM
Ms Yingluck's audience with the Queen is rare event for a non-Commonwealth leader – her brother Thaksin Shinawatra was not received on his trips as prime minister – and is a boon for a nation where the Thai royal family is revered.
The timing of Ms Yingluck's meeting with the Queen is particularly significant because later this month her ruling Pheu Thai party faces a censure debate in the Thai parliament.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, the leader of the Democrats, did not receive an audience with the Queen when he visited the UK while Prime Minister between 2008-2011, despite having been born in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated at Eton and Oxford.
