Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has affirmed that his ties with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda are still solid and unbreakable.
Gen Prawit was responding on Wednesday to media speculation that his relations with Gen Prayut had turned sour, judging by the way they went on separate trips to different provinces on Tuesday.
Gen Prayut led his entourage to Phetchaburi while Gen Prawit, accompanied by a large number of Palang Pracharath Party MPs, visited Ayutthaya.
Gen Prawit said he and Gen Prayut never had problems with each other, but the media had tried to drive a wedge between them.
"We have been close for over 50 years. Reports about us parting ways are nonsense," he said.
"Remember this. Only death shall we three (Prawit, Prayut and Anupong) part."
The PPRP leader said that Gen Prayut had visited him every day at the office of the Foundation for the Conservation of Forests in Five Adjoining Provinces in the compound of the 1st Infantry Division in Bangkok.
The office is known to be Gen Prawit's "operations centre".
Gen Prawit said the only reason he did not accompany Gen Prayut was that he could not walk as quickly as the prime minister. It was better for him to make a separate trip, and cover more places, he added.