Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is set to visit Moscow at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany on May 9. The military parade, which commemorates the end of World War II, will also be attended by leaders from China, India, and Brazil.
According to junta media, Min Aung Hlaing’s visit will focus on strengthening cooperation with Russia in economic, security, and other sectors. He is also expected to hold private meetings with other international leaders attending the event.
Meanwhile Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that he cannot guarantee the safety of foreign leaders attending the event, amid Kyiv’s ongoing drone strikes on Moscow following Russia’s invasion of his country.
This month’s visit will be Min Aung Hlaing’s fifth trip to Russia since seizing power in the 2021 military coup. His second trip this year comes just two months after he visited the Kremlin at Putin’s invitation in early March.
While Min Aung Hlaing has held a couple of private meetings with President Putin, he has never met with President Xi Jinping of China, the regime’s other main international ally and arms supplier. He made his first post-coup visit to China in October last year, amid reports that Beijing was increasingly frustrated with the junta’s loss of control over territory bordering China. However, he was not invited to the 10th Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) summit held in Beijing that month.
China’s BRI projects and border trade in Myanmar have been severely disrupted by the outbreak of civil war since the coup.
In April, the junta boss held his first meeting with the leader of Myanmar’s other giant neighbor, India’s Narendra Modi, on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit in Thailand.
Observers suggest that Min Aung Hlaing may attempt to meet with Xi while in Moscow, using the pretext of personally thanking him for China’s relief aid following the March 28 earthquake disaster.
He has another reason to thank Xi, after China intervened to secure a ceasefire in northern Shan State.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) signed a truce with the junta military in January after China cut off supplies to MNDAA-controlled territory and detained its leader. As a result, the junta reclaimed the northern Shan capital of Lashio in April without firing a shot, some eight months after losing the city to MNDAA forces.
China is now brokering talks between the regime and the ethnic Ta’ang National Liberation Army, pressuring the ethnic armed group to hand back territory in Shan State and Mandalay Region.
On Tuesday, Min Aung Hlaing declared a month-long extension of the separate ceasefire to facilitate earthquake recovery efforts. However, the regime continued to pound resistance-held civilian areas in central Myanmar despite devastating impacts from the 7.7-magnitude quake.
As of May 2, the junta had carried out 282 air attacks since the March 28 earthquake, killing 276 civilians and wounding 456 others, according to the civilian National Unity Government (NUG). At least 31 children were killed in the airstrikes, which were conducted across Myanmar, except for Yangon and Naypyitaw, the NUG reported.
This month’s Moscow visit will be the junta leader’s third trip abroad since February, despite an international warrant for his arrest issued that month by an Argentinian court over his alleged role in the genocide against the Rohingya in 2017.
