ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing to Visit Indonesia and Brunei, Regime Spokesperson Says

Since taking office in April, the former general has visited five ASEAN member states as he seeks normalization with the Southeast Asian bloc.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) and Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing meet at the Perdana Putra Complex in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Oct. 8, 2026.

Myanmar’s military-appointed President Min Aung Hlaing could follow up his controversial state visit to Malaysia with trips to Indonesia and Brunei, according to a Myanmar government spokesperson.

Speaking at the conclusion of Min Aung Hlaing’s two-day visit to Malaysia on Thursday, spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe told reporters that the two nations planned to invite the Myanmar leader to make an official visit on an unspecified date. She added that Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had shared the information with Min Aung Hlaing during their meeting in Putrajaya last week.

Malaysia was the fifth member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to host Min Aung Hlaing since he took office as president in April, after trips to Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It was also the first nation from maritime Southeast Asia to host him.

The spokesperson’s comments, if confirmed, would represent just the latest diplomatic success for Min Aung Hlaing, who led the military coup of 2021. Since shedding his military fatigues and taking office as president in April, he has been on a regional charm offensive aimed at consolidating key partnerships and seeking injections of much-needed foreign investment.

In addition to visits to India, China, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, a particular priority has been the normalization of Myanmar’s relations with ASEAN. Since late 2021, the 11-nation bloc has excluded the country from its summits over its failure to implement its Five-Point Consensus conflict resolution plan, which called for a cessation of violence, access to humanitarian aid, and inclusive dialogue involving “all parties” to the country’s conflict.

Since the military coup of 2021, Myanmar’s mainland Southeast Asian neighbors have been less publicly critical of the military and shown more inclination to engage the military government. The six maritime ASEAN states – Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, and Timor-Leste – have generally been more critical and advocated a tougher regional line on Myanmar. But with a new and more legitimized government now in office in Naypyidaw, and after five years of apparently scant progress on the Five-Point Consensus, it appears that ASEAN and its member states have coalesced around a new approach.

In an interview with Singapore’s Straits Times, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN this year, said that........

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