BANGKOK—Myanmar’s junta chief held talks with the Malaysian prime minister in Bangkok Thursday in a meeting condemned by critics of the military government.
Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal multi-sided conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing made a rare foreign trip to the Thai capital to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on the sidelines of a Thai-Malaysian bilateral meeting.
The two held a “frank and constructive discussion focused on the urgent humanitarian needs of the Myanmar people… [and] the importance of returning the country to normalcy”, Anwar said in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
He added that he would meet with Myanmar’s exiled opposition National Unity Government on Friday.
Anwar is chairing the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc this year.
ASEAN in the past barred junta officials from its summits over lack of progress on a peace plan.
Myanmar’s junta government on Thursday said the two leaders “discussed the continuing assistance from the united ASEAN community and Myanmar-ASEAN cooperation for rehabilitation after the Myanmar earthquake disaster”.
The junta statement added that Thai ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra was present at the meeting.
Anwar earlier this week said he would meet Min Aung Hlaing to discuss the safety of Malaysian humanitarian teams dispatched to Myanmar following last month’s magnitude-7.7 earthquake.
Opposition groups and rights organizations on Wednesday criticized ASEAN leaders’ engagement with the head of the military junta, accusing him of war crimes in Myanmar’s brutal conflict.
“Rather than supporting the people of Myanmar, these actions risk legitimizing the illegal military coup and reinforcing the regime responsible for their suffering,” they said in a statement.
Min Aung Hlaing earlier this month met with leaders from the Bay of Bengal littoral nations at a plush Bangkok hotel, an invitation that drew criticism.
His presence at that summit represented a diplomatic win for Myanmar’s isolated government, as it broke with a regional policy of not inviting junta leaders to major events.
