Myanmar’s Leader Min Aung Hlaing to Visit Thailand Next Month, Report Claims

Myanmar’s leader Min Aung Hlaing will make an official visit to Thailand next month, a Japanese media outlet reported yesterday, in what would be his second trip to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member state since taking office as president. Citing “ASEAN sources,” Kyodo News reported that the former general, who led the military coup in 2021, would make the trip in early August. According to Kyodo News, the sources “did not provide the detailed schedule of his visit to Thailand,” but the former general has been pushing hard to normalize his new government’s relations with ASEAN. Since late 2021, ASEAN has barred Myanmar’s post-coup regime from attending its summits due to its lack of efforts to implement the Five-Point Consensus, the bloc’s plan for the resolution of the country’s conflict. Shortly after his election as president in April, Min Aung Hlaing has pushed hard for normalization with outside partners, announcing that his new “civilian” administration intended to “enhance international relations and strive to restore normal relations” with the 11-nation bloc. During July 3-5, the former general traveled to Laos, his first official trip to an ASEAN member state since taking office. During the trip, he met with President Thongloun Sisoulith and signed several agreements, including one relating to cooperation in space technology. The trip came a month after Lao Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane visited Naypyidaw, one of several top ASEAN diplomats to do so since April. Last month, Min Aung Hlaing also paid high-profile official visits to India and China, which have now effectively recognized the legitimacy of his military-backed administration. Within ASEAN, Thailand has been a key advocate of ASEAN’s reengagement with Myanmar going back to late 2024, when it hosted an “informal consultation” in Bangkok that was attended by foreign ministers and high-level representatives from Myanmar’s military junta and its five neighbors: Laos, China, India, Bangladesh, and Thailand. It also allowed junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to visit Thailand for the summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in April 2025. These efforts have ramped up since Myanmar’s controversial election, which was held in three phases in December and January and created the current military-dominated parliament. In February, Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow announced that his country wanted “to be a bridge connecting Myanmar back to ASEAN.” Thailand also hosted and helped to broker the “informal meeting” between Myanmar Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe and his ASEAN counterparts that was held in Bangkok on Sunday, the first such meeting since the coup. After Sunday’s meeting, Sihasak said that Thailand, like ASEAN as a whole, still adhered to the Five-Point Consensus, which calls for an immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar and inclusive dialogue featuring “all parties” to the country’s intersecting conflicts. “This process of engagement does not mean any change in our basic position as reflected in the Five-Point Consensus, but it does mean achieving towards engagement, listening, and being realistic about what can be achieved,” he said, as per Reuters. At the same time, the new government in Naypyidaw has toughened its stance against the Five-Point Consensus and become more vocal in its continued exclusion from ASEAN. Last week, the parliament went so far as to pass a motion rejecting the Consensus as a form of interference by ASEAN that was inconsistent with the country’s “political reality.” This view has been echoed by regime propaganda accounts on social media. “Until ASEAN respects its foundational principle of non-interference and acknowledges the realities surrounding Myanmar’s newly elected government, no progress can be made,” the Views of Myanmar account on X stated yesterday. “Myanmar will no longer accept a rigid, one-sided enforcement of the Five-Point Statement.” At the same time, with several ASEAN member states, including Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore, advocating a harder line on Myanmar, normalization is unlikely to happen absent some kind of significant concession or action by the authorities in Naypyidaw. In addition to discussions about border security and efforts to combat transnational crime, Min Aung Hlaing’s upcoming trip to Thailand will likely involve discussions about possible steps that Myanmar’s new government might take to move normalization with ASEAN forward. Whether it is willing to make the concessions necessary to convince all of ASEAN’s member states to bring it back into the fold remains unclear.