Ailing Thai king unable to meet new ministers
Monarch misses planned meeting with coup leader and new government ministers as speculation increases over his declining health
Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej missed a planned meeting with two government ministers, palace officials said, amid ongoing public concern over the state of the ailing 86-year-old’s health.
The two ministers were supposed to accompany junta leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha to meet the world’s longest serving monarch on Friday evening to swear an oath in front of him before taking up office.
But the palace said his medical team had advised against the king going ahead with the ceremony.
“A team of royal physicians recommended that the king is not ready to grant an audience. Therefore the date of the royal audience is postponed,” a statement from the Royal Household Bureau said late on Friday.
The elderly king, who is treated as a near-deity in Thailand, has suffered from a series of ailments in recent years.
In early October he was rushed from his palace in the southern seaside resort of Hua Hin to a Bangkok hospital, where he underwent an operation to remove his gall bladder and has remained admitted since.
