Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is under multiple global sanctions and is also wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity.
The head of Myanmar’s military government is visiting Thailand for a regional summit, making a rare international trip as his country recovers from a devastating earthquake that killed thousands of people.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has been shunned by much of the West for overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and subsequent brutal repression. He has not been allowed to participate in meetings of another regional organisation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, since the army seized power in February 2021 and began violently suppressing opposition.
He is, however, one of several regional leaders visiting Bangkok for a three-day summit of nations in the Bay of Bengal region. Upon arrival on Thursday, the military chief was greeted by Thailand’s labour minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn at the airport.
He later attended an official dinner for leaders of the seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), which includes Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Min Aung Hlaing, who led an entourage of Myanmar officials, also met Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Thursday, state media said, ahead of the summit focused on technical and economic matters. The Myanmar leader sat between the prime ministers of Bhutan and Sri Lanka at the head table during Thursday’s dinner with heads of BIMSTEC nations, Thai government photographs showed.
On the sidelines, Min Aung Hlaing had two-way meetings with Thai premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. In a post on X after meeting Min Aung Hlaing, Modi said cooperation on connectivity, capacity building and infrastructure development featured in their discussions.
With the Thai prime minister, the military leader discussed disaster prevention, transnational crime and the repatriation of those pulled out of scam centres, Thai officials said.
The BIMSTEC meeting comes as Myanmar is still searching for survivors in the rubble left by a massive earthquake last week.
The magnitude 7.7 quake toppled thousands of buildings, collapsed bridges and buckled roads. The death toll rose to 3,085 on Thursday, with more than 4,700 people injured and at least 300 missing, the military said in a statement.
But even as people in Myanmar struggled with the aftermath of the earthquake, the military carried out air strikes on rebel groups, drawing angry condemnation from international powers.
This week, the military called for a temporary ceasefire that began on Wednesday until April 22 in operations against armed opponents, reflecting moves by a major rebel alliance and Myanmar’s shadow government that groups parts of the previous administration.
But all sides still say they reserve the right to act in self-defence, and there have already been reports of sporadic fighting.
Meanwhile, protesters in Bangkok displayed a banner calling Myanmar’s military chief a “murderer” as he joined the summit.
The shadow National Unity Government established by elected politicians who were barred from taking their seats, also said it strongly condemned the inclusion of Min Aung Hlaing at the summit. It said he doesn’t have the legitimacy to represent Myanmar.
The NUG said it urged BIMSTEC to “immediately revoke the military junta’s participation in the summit and related meetings”.
Activist group Justice for Myanmar said in a statement that the invitation for Min Aung Hlaing to attend the meeting “legitimises and emboldens a military junta that the people of Myanmar have been resisting for over four years, and tarnishes BIMSTEC’s reputation as a regional body”.
Min Aung Hlaing is under multiple global sanctions and the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant for him for alleged crimes against humanity committed against Muslim-majority Rohingya.
“I think the inverse would occur if we don’t adhere to what the charter says,” Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura told The Associated Press news agency.
“And enshrined in the charter it says that Thailand has the responsibility to invite the leaders of all BIMSTEC leaders.”
