Myanmar’s leader Min Aung Hlaing, who recently shifted from heading the country’s military government to serving as president, is expected to travel to Laos within the next few days, according to state media reports released Wednesday. The upcoming trip will be his first official visit to a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations since assuming his new civilian role.
The journey comes roughly four months after Min Aung Hlaing completed a carefully orchestrated move from military ruler to president. He has previously traveled to Myanmar’s large neighboring countries, India and China, but this will be his first visit to an ASEAN nation in his new capacity.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that Min Aung Hlaing accepted an invitation from Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith and will be accompanied by his spouse along with a group of senior cabinet ministers and government officials. The newspaper did not provide specific dates for the visit.
The 11-nation ASEAN bloc declined to recognize the outcome of Myanmar’s three-phase elections held in December and January. Those elections barred major opposition groups from participating and resulted in a landslide win for a military-aligned political party.
Despite that stance, ASEAN member nations have increasingly sought to re-engage with Myanmar following the elections. The foreign ministers of Malaysia and Thailand have both made separate trips to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, in recent months.
Min Aung Hlaing first seized power in February 2021 through a coup that ousted an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. That takeover sparked widespread protests that eventually grew into a brutal civil war, which continues to this day.
In the immediate aftermath of the coup, ASEAN attempted — without success — to broker peace through a framework called the “five-point consensus.” The bloc also banned Myanmar’s military leadership from attending its regional summits, leaving Min Aung Hlaing largely shut out diplomatically until last year. Following his election win, he stated that rebuilding ties with ASEAN was among his government’s top priorities.
Richard Horsey, a senior Asia advisor at the International Crisis Group, offered this assessment of the upcoming visit: “A state visit to Laos represents the clearest break yet with the diplomatic quarantine that ASEAN imposed on Naypyitaw after the coup.”
Horsey added, “That inevitably weakens the political force of the five-point consensus, and means that the shrinking number of ASEAN states still arguing against normalisation will find it increasingly difficult to hold the line.”
