By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-09-03 13:56:25 | Updated at 2026-09-03 14:28:18
43 minutes ago
BANGKOK – Myanmar junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing is scheduled to visit Cambodia from Sept 11 to 12, after a trip to Vietnam from Sept 4 to 6.
High-level sources in Phnom Penh confirmed the Cambodia dates with The Straits Times on Sept 3. While Phnom Penh was earlier reported to have extended an invitation to Myanmar, the dates for the visit haven’t been confirmed until now.
With these trips, Min Aung Hlaing will have visited four ASEAN states in three months. And Cambodia will be the eighth country he will visit since assuming the presidency earlier in 2026, as he seeks greater legitimacy and regional re-engagement.
These international trips come even as members of the Myanmar diaspora and activists stage protests outside Thailand embassies in cities like London, Seoul and Tokyo to urge Bangkok not to legitimise the Myanmar regime.
In mid-August, Phnom Penh had said that Min Aung Hlaing would be visiting the country in order “to strengthen the friendship between Cambodia and Myanmar”.
“Cooperation between the two countries is necessary and mutually beneficial,” Chea Thyrith, spokesperson for the Senate president, was quoted as saying in the Cambodian media.
Min Aung Hlaing, 70, has launched a diplomatic push to solidify his position following the junta’s 2021 coup. As president, he has made six official foreign visits thus far: an inaugural trip to India, followed by China, Laos, Thailand, Russia and Belarus.
These bilateral visits especially to ASEAN member states have elicited a slew of criticisms from rights organizations accusing the host countries of legitimising Min Aung Hlaing who staged the 2021 coup in Myanmar.
“It’s not about legitimacy, it’s about reality,” said Thailand’s foreign minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Aug 6 as he defended Bangkok’s invitation to Min Aung Hlaing.
Naing Min Khant, a research analyst at the local think-tank Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, highlighted that the ASEAN member states willing to host Min Aung Hlaing are either semi-democracies or under authoritarian rule.
“In a world where ‘might makes right’ and strategic interests take precedence over democratic rights and values, it is not surprising that these countries roll out the red carpet for Myanmar’s regime leader,” Naing Min Khant said.
ASEAN has barred Min Aung Hlaing from its high-level summits since he ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held in detention and subsequently under house arrest since 2021.
Before the ex-junta leader is allowed back to the talks, the 11-member regional grouping wants him to substantially implement ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus (5PC), which includes ending violence and greater humanitarian aid delivery access among other conditions.
But Min Aung Hlaing has remained defiant by disregarding the 5PC, claiming Myanmar’s pro-military parliamentarians have rejected that peace plan.
On Aug 8, shortly after returning from his official visit to Thailand, he even challenged ASEAN’s credibility by rejecting the need for a permanent special envoy to be appointed on Myanmar.
Richard Horsey, senior Asia adviser at the International Crisis Group (ICG), noted that Min Aung Hlaing is using bilateral visits to individual member states to work around ASEAN’s official summit ban.
“Min Aung Hlaing is working precisely that gap, and choosing his hosts carefully,” he said.
During Min Aung Hlaing’s recent visit to Laos, the two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in sectors such as energy, transport and education.
His subsequent visit to Thailand saw both nations pledging to increase security cooperation and private-sector business exchanges.
Similar transactional themes will likely dominate the agenda during his visits to Vietnam and Cambodia.
But what Min Aung Hlaing has gained politically through these visits far outweighs the commitments on paper made with the respective governments.
“He has converted a stage-managed election into a run of diplomatic acceptance and paid nothing for it. The images also serve a domestic purpose – they are evidence he is internationally accepted, the opposite of his domestic standing,” said Horsey.
Ben Lee, Executive Director of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-Myanmar), an independent group of human rights experts, told ST that countries who roll out the red carpet for Min Aung Hlaing are “complicit in the junta’s continuing atrocities against Myanmar civilians.”
ASEAN must exert greater pressure on Min Aung Hlaing to show measurable progress in achieving the 5PC, he added.
“Concessions must be extracted from the junta. ASEAN must stop negotiating against itself,” Lee stressed.
The Philippines currently chairs ASEAN, with Singapore taking over in 2027 and Thailand the year after.
The remaining three months of Manila’s ASEAN chairmanship will be tricky as the ongoing Myanmar conflict extends into Singapore’s term.
ICG’s Horsey points out that Singapore is the grouping’s most vocal defender of the 5PC, but how much longer can it hold that stance?
“(Min Aung Hlaing) is hollowing out the framework while making bilateral normalisation a fact on the ground,” Horsey said. “By November, the choice ASEAN faces is whether to keep enforcing a policy several members have already stopped observing.”
Since the 2021 coup, conflict monitor Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) has reported at least 100,000 deaths, while the United Nations estimates four million people have been displaced.
Though junta attacks continue, Naing Min Khant believes Min Aung Hlaing has turned these international visits to his advantage.
“The regime shifts its situation from a legitimacy crisis to a legitimacy challenge,” he said, “because normalization with Naypyitaw by neighboring countries is a looming reality.”
