Ko Ko Hlaing, a minister at the junta’s Cabinet Office, explained the regime’s preparations for a poll next year when he met Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Phnom Penh on Thursday as the special envoy of junta boss Min Aung Hlaing.
He also held separate talks with Hun Manet’s father Hun Sen, the former prime minister who is now the president of Cambodia’s Senate.
Ko Ko Hlaing, who served as an advisor to former President Thein Sein, conveyed to the two the junta’s narrative of the latest developments in Myanmar during his working trip to Cambodia from Wednesday through Friday.
Ko Ko Hlaing’s trip to Cambodia comes on the heels of a series of crushing military defeats for the junta at the hands of an ethnic alliance and resistance forces in northern Shan State near the border with China. Hostilities continue in northern Shan, though the alliance previously declared a unilateral ceasefire until the end of July in response to pressure from China.
According to junta media, Ko Ko Hlaing discussed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar; promotion of “people-to-people connectivity” and cooperation in areas of mutual interest including the tourism and cultural sectors; closer cooperation in the regional and international arenas; and plans to commemorate next year’s 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Myanmar and Cambodia.
Political observers believe Ko Ko Hlaing conveyed a request from Min Aung Hlaing to Hun Sen, who has close ties to China, to help persuade Beijing to intervene in the ongoing armed conflicts in northern Shan.
While the international community has shunned Min Aung Hlaing for seizing power in a coup and overseeing his forces’ war crimes, Hun Sen, then still serving as Cambodia’s longest-reigning prime minister, flew to Naypyitaw in 2022 to meet the regime chief. The trip was followed by two rounds of talks via videoconferencing in 2022 and this year.
In May, when he met Min Aung Hlaing online, Hun Sen asked the junta boss to allow him talk to jailed civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in a video call. Min Aung Hlaing reportedly agreed to give the request “high consideration” but no such meeting has materialized.
During his meeting with Ko Ko Hlaing on Thursday, Hun Sen reaffirmed Cambodia’s “commitment to peace” in Myanmar, the pro-government Khmer Times reported.
“Finding a solution to end the war requires the participation of all parties. Obviously, we cannot abandon any stakeholders, even if we do not want to negotiate with them,” Hun Sen posted on his Telegram channel.
At the National Defense and Security Council meeting which Min Aung Hlaing presided over as Myanmar’s acting president on Wednesday, the junta boss said the election planned for next year would be held in stages.
