BANGKOK, Thailand — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a rapturous welcome on a visit here earlier this month, perhaps putting to bed finally one of the world’s odder diplomatic standoffs.
As the leader of a top global energy producer with billions and billions of dollars in investment and purchases to offer, the Saudi crown would ordinarily be welcomed to a country like Thailand with open arms. But the prince’s visit came only after Riyadh lifted three decades of sanctions which cost the Thai economy untold billions of dollars in lost trade, tourism and jobs — all because a Thai janitor, or perhaps a Thai gardener — stole the big diamond more than three decades ago.