Vietnam’s foreign minister to make first bilateral visit to Myanmar since 2021 coup

Mizzima

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung will visit Naypyidaw on 26 August for a bilateral cooperation meeting with Myanmar counterpart Tin Maung Swe, marking the first official visit to the country by a Vietnamese foreign minister since the 2021 coup, according to Vietnam’s foreign ministry.

Neither government has announced a detailed agenda. It is not yet known whether Trung will meet junta leader Min Aung Hlaing or whether the talks will address Myanmar’s conflict, political detainees or ASEAN’s stalled peace plan.

Vietnam and Myanmar exchanged new ambassadors in July.

The visit adds to a widening pattern of regional engagement with Myanmar’s military-backed government. Min Aung Hlaing visited Laos in July and Thailand in early August, then travelled to Russia and Belarus in mid-to-late August, where he received official state-level welcomes. Cambodia is also preparing to host him on a state visit in early September.

ASEAN has not recognised Myanmar’s military-organized election and continues to exclude junta leaders from its summits under the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus. However, ASEAN foreign ministers held an informal meeting with Tin Maung Swe in Bangkok in July, the first such in-person contact since the coup.