Myanmar’s Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s official visit to Bangkok for the Bay of Bengal region summit, scheduled for this Friday, is still confirmed, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said today.
The visit, which starts today and is the junta leader’s first to Bangkok since the 2021 coup, was initially expected to be canceled after Myanmar was hit by a strong earthquake on March 28, causing thousands of deaths and severe damage.
Nikorndej said, “Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to the 6th Summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is on. He will attend the summit on April 4.”
Meanwhile the junta said in a statement, "State Administration Council Chairman Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing will travel to Thailand on April 3 to attend the sixth BIMSTEC Summit, and will attend the meeting on April 3 and 4."
It added Min Aung Hlaing will discuss with other leaders Myanmar's quake situation "and ways to cooperate with the international community to effectively carry out relief (and) rehabilitation".
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Bangkok on Thursday for talks ahead of the meet with his Thai counterpart Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Thailand has proposed that the leaders issue a joint statement on the impact of the diaster when they meet on Friday -- one week on from the day the quake struck.
The Bay of Bengal meeting, which begins tomorrow with a senior officials’ session, marks the first summit-level event chaired by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Other BIMSTEC members include Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal.
Meanwhile, an informed source revealed that Min Aung Hlaing may meet former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, father of the current Thai premier.
Thaksin, now chief advisor to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, this year’s ASEAN chair, has said that Anwar assigned him to seek solutions to Myanmar’s internal conflicts and ongoing fighting.
Even before taking on this advisory role, Thaksin reportedly hosted meetings in Bangkok and Chiang Mai last year with Myanmar’s warring factions in an effort to resolve the country’s crisis.