Yingluck and George Soros meet when she was prime minister?
The Thaksin-Soros relationship has always been something of a mystery. How close this relationship really is?
Did Yingluck and George Soros meet while Thaksin’s sister was prime minister in 2012?
This is true. In January 2012, Thailand’s Prime Minister met the controversial financier who had ruined Thailand’s economy. The private meeting took place at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
On January 26th 2012, after a two-day visit to India, Yingluck Shinawatra jetted in from New Delhi to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.
She delivered a speech in a session on “Women as the Way Forward”, and hosted a Thai-sponsored “Thailand Night” extravaganza, featuring food, Muay Thai and a fashion show, for participants at the Davos forum. She sought to restore confidence in Thailand after the flood crisis and the general election in 2011. The election has handed Thailand “a bright beginning and the chance to steadily move forward”, Yingluck said. But her performance was poor. She failed to restore confidence in her government and Thailand’s economy
Yingluck found it difficult to organise bilateral meetings with key world leaders at Davos. She held talks with leaders of countries like Tanzania and Pakistan. She also gave a couple of interviews to the foreign media, struggling with the idea that she was simply a placeholder for her brother, Thaksin.
And she also met “with a number of representatives from the private sector attending the 42nd World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland”. One of them was George Soros.
By the time Yingluck landed in Davos, Soros had already shocked the forum warning that the Eurozone debt crisis could destroy the European Union.
Despite his cynical attack on baht, Soros has enjoyed a close (and lucrative) relationship with Thaksin. The Yingluck-Soros meeting in Davos confirmed Soros’s support for the Shinawatra family.