It was with great sadness that I learned about the passing of Privy Council member Air Chief Marshall Siddhi Savetsila. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to him for his lifelong service to King, country, and international friendship. As a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1940s, he traded tweeds for jungle fatigues to fight as a member of the Free Thai with the United States against the foreign occupation of Thailand.
The bonds born of that experience only strengthened in the following decades of his career in the Air Force, through senior levels of government and diplomacy, and on His Majesty’s Privy Council as we worked together to address many global challenges. ACM Siddhi was a generous, courageous leader, as well as a shining example of the battle-tested, enduring ties between our countries. I offer heartfelt condolences to his family and to his colleagues, especially Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda.
