Thailand agrees plan for Saudi Arabia labour deployment as ties normalise

File photo of labourers working at the construction site of a building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. - Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters): Thailand plans to facilitate the deployment of labour to Saudi Arabia for the first time in decades, its government said on Tuesday (March 1), part of the restoration of ties that were severed by the Gulf State over a multi-million dollar jewellery theft.

Thailand has been eager to normalise relations with the oil-rich Kingdom after a spat that has cost billions of dollars in two-way trade and tourism revenues and the loss of tens of thousands of overseas Thai jobs.