Myanmar regime excluded from 49th ASEAN Summit despite Min Aung Hlaing’s diplomatic push

Han Win Aung, the regime’s Director General of ASEAN Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the 38th ASEAN-United States Dialogue in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 3, 2026. (Credit: MOFA)

The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) stated on Wednesday that a representative from Myanmar’s ASEAN Affairs Department will attend the 49th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Manila, Philippines, from Nov. 15-17 as senior regime officials have been barred since 2021 following the military coup.

“Myanmar will be represented by the Director-General of the ASEAN Affairs Department of its Foreign Ministry,” stated the DFA press release on Nov. 11. Han Win Aung, the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director General of the ASEAN Affairs Department, attended the 38th ASEAN-United States Dialogue at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 3.

This DFA announcement follows a joint statement by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), which demanded that ASEAN 2026 Chair the Philippines should state publicly that it will not invite “accused war criminal Min Aung Hlaing” to Manila.

“Given ASEAN’s mounting political and moral failures on Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing’s attendance at the Summit would mark a total capitulation,” stated Yanghee Lee, a SAC-M founding member, in a Nov. 9 press release. “It would be a permanent stain on ASEAN,” the former U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar added.

The joint statement added that the Myanmar military continued attacks against civilians by carrying out airstrikes during and after ASEAN Chair 2026 Special Envoy Theresa Lazaro’s three-day humanitarian visit to the country from Oct. 28-30.