HANOI, Vietnam — Myanmar’s military-backed government leader Min Aung Hlaing has arrived in Hanoi for high-stakes talks with top Vietnamese officials, marking the latest step in his years-long campaign to repair Myanmar’s fractured regional standing and court much-needed foreign capital amid widespread international isolation.
This diplomatic outreach comes more than five years after Min Aung Hlaing, then serving as Myanmar’s army chief, seized power in a February 2021 coup that ousted the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover triggered widespread global condemnation, years of diplomatic shunning, and a brutal nationwide civil conflict that has persisted to this day, following a deadly military crackdown on mass anti-coup protests that spawned a widespread armed resistance movement.
Since his controversial swearing-in as president in April 2024, following an election widely dismissed by critics as a sham to cement the military’s permanent grip on power, Min Aung Hlaing has ramped up his global diplomatic schedule. Prior to this Vietnam visit, he has undertaken official trips to India, China, Laos, Thailand, and more recently, Eurasian nations including Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Russia, where he has held one-on-one meetings with national leaders and hosted business forums focused on attracting foreign direct investment to Myanmar.
Vietnam holds unique significance for Myanmar’s military leadership: the two Southeast Asian countries share decades of deep military-to-military ties, including formal defense cooperation agreements. Vietnam’s state-owned military telecommunications conglomerate Viettel also holds a major stake in Mytel, one of Myanmar’s largest domestic telecom operators, which is partially owned by entities linked to Myanmar’s military.
Despite these longstanding connections, bilateral economic ties between the two nations have weakened sharply in recent years. Official data shared by Min Aung Hlaing with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung during their August meeting in Naypyidaw shows bilateral trade plummeted from $853 million in 2020, the final full year before the coup, to just $590 million in 2025, and only reached $335 million in the first half of 2026, according to Vietnam’s foreign ministry.
According to Myanmar’s state-run MRTV television, Min Aung Hlaing departed the country’s capital Naypyidaw on Friday morning for the visit. During his time in Hanoi, he is scheduled to hold formal talks with Vietnamese President To Lam and other senior Vietnamese government leaders, alongside attending an investment-focused business forum accompanied by members of his cabinet.
This trip marks Min Aung Hlaing’s third official visit to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member state as he works to rebuild Myanmar’s standing within the 11-nation regional bloc. Following the 2021 coup, ASEAN barred Min Aung Hlaing from the bloc’s top-level summits for years over his failure to implement a 2021 consensus peace plan designed to de-escalate post-coup violence in Myanmar.
Western governments have maintained broad sanctions and diplomatic shunning of Min Aung Hlaing and his inner circle since the 2021 coup, in response to the ouster of the elected government and widespread human rights violations documented by independent monitors during the ongoing civil conflict.