Myanmar's coup leader meets with senior Chinese, Japanese, and Thai officials

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

Over the weekend, senior officials from China, Japan, and Thailand arrived in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's capital, to meet with coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

Sun Guoxiang, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, came in Myanmar unannounced and is expected to meet with Myanmar's military leadership, according to sources monitoring the Sino-Myanmar relationship.

 

Sun's journey to Myanmar is his second since the February 1 coup.
During a week-long visit to the country in August, he visited Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and members of the regime's ruling body, the State Administration Council.

Sun's request to meet incarcerated State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was denied at the time by the military authorities.

The specifics of the special envoy's current visit are unknown, but political analysts believe he will urge the coup leaders to implement the five-point consensus reached with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as reiterate calls for dialogue between Myanmar's political stakeholders.

 

Since the coup, the country has been in political, economic, and social instability.
Myanmar is a member of ASEAN, which has attempted to mediate the conflict with limited success.

The junta has yet to implement the five-point agreement reached with the ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar in April, which includes stopping the country's violence and allowing the ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar to visit.

"Apart from discussing the political situation and peace in Myanmar, [Sun] would try to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi again," one political expert speculated.

Sun Guoxiang's visit to Myanmar has yet to be formally publicised by the administration.

 

Yohei Sasakawa, Japan's special envoy for national reconciliation in Myanmar, is also in the country.
On Saturday, he met with Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and reviewed the current situation in Myanmar, the peace process, and Japan's help to the country, according to the regime.

On Monday, Japan's ambassador paid a visit to camps for internally displaced Rohingya in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, and on Wednesday, he would meet with representatives of ethnic political groups.

 

Before this year's general election, Yohei Sasakawa successfully brokered a ceasefire between Myanmar's military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine militant group.
Fighting had ceased for nearly a year before resuming last week in Maungdaw, in northern Rakhine.

Don Pramudwinai, Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, arrived in Naypyitaw on Sunday and met with the junta's leader.

 

According to diplomatic sources, the Thai mission consisted of five persons, including a senior advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, his chief of staff, and his office counsellor.
The Thai ambassador to Myanmar, on the other hand, was not present during the meeting.
It is suspected that delicate matters were discussed, maybe including the issue of anti-regime dissidents stationed in Thai border towns.