Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing paid an official visit to Malaysia while debates over the repatriation of refugees continue. Received in Kuala Lumpur, Hlaing attended a business meeting aimed at strengthening economic cooperation; he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tomorrow.
The visit took place 4 days after Malaysia deported approximately 1500 Myanmar citizens. Ibrahim had announced in July that around 5 thousand Rohingya would be repatriated; the number of those deported since January stands at approximately 10 thousand. Rights groups have criticized the repatriations despite a civil war in which more than 100 thousand people have been killed since 2021.
ASEAN has not invited junta officials to its summits since 2021. For Hlaing, who became president in April, this is his 5th visit to an ASEAN country. Analysts point out that the visit could lend the junta international legitimacy.
Why it matters
The timing of the visit lays bare the contradiction in Kuala Lumpur’s two-pronged policy: on one hand, repatriating thousands of Myanmar citizens to a country where civil war continues, while on the other, hosting the junta leader at an official level. The fact that member states maintain bilateral contacts despite ASEAN’s summit ban in place since 2021 raises the question of how binding the bloc’s common stance is in practice. Hlaing’s fifth visit to an ASEAN country since his appointment to the presidency in April is being read as part of the junta’s effort to break its isolation. As the scope of the repatriation program expands, if the objections of rights groups go unanswered, it remains unclear how the safety of those deported will be ensured. Malaysia’s emphasis on economic cooperation also brings with it the debate over where the balance between humanitarian concerns and commercial interests in the region is shifting.