King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida to visit Laos

King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida of Thailand will pay a state visit to the Lao PDR next week. 

The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday, 13th March, that King Rama X (Vajiralongkorn) and Queen Suthida will pay a state visit to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic from the 16th to 18th March, 2026. The state visit, at the invitation of the President, His Excellency Mr Thongloun Sisoulith, will “further strengthen the longstanding friendship and close relations between Thailand and the Lao PDR.”

This will be the first state visit by a Thai sovereign in 32 years since King Rama IX (Bhumibol Adulyadej) and Queen Sirikit (later The Queen Mother) visited the Lao PDR in April 1994.

The King and Queen are scheduled to attend an official welcoming ceremony and meet with President Thongloun Sisoulith and his spouse, Naly Sisoulith, at the Presidential Palace. The Prime Minister of the Lao PDR and President of the National Assembly, with their spouses, will also be received in audience by Their Majesties.

The King and Queen will participate in a Blessing (Baci) Ceremony and attend a state banquet hosted by the President of the Lao PDR at the Presidential Palace.

The Baci (Baci Sou Khuan, also spelt Basi) is a traditional Laotian ceremony held on significant occasions, during which a person takes a white cotton string attached to an altar, wraps it around one’s hands and wrists, and then prays for the continued health of the person. There is a belief that the “32 organs in the body” contain 32 different spirits. As we move throughout life, these spirits wander from oneself. The ceremony is believed to bring these spirits back to the person with good health and fortune.

While in Laos, the King and Queen will visit the Huayxone-Huayxua Agricultural Development Service Centre in Vientiane—the first royal project established in the Lao PDR under the initiative of King Rama IX—and pay homage at the Pha That Luang at the That Luang Museum, where sacred relics of the Lord Buddha are enshrined.

A visit to an exhibition of Lao silk and traditional textiles at the Traditional Lao Silk Residence is also planned.

The state visit occurs as the Kingdom of Thailand and the Lao PDR celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Thailand—Laos Diplomatic Relations last year. This milestone event will “further strengthen the close relations between the two neighbouring countries and enhance longstanding people-to-people ties.”

The Royal News Organisation will keep you up to date with the state visit taking place next week.