ASEAN-Ostracized Interim President to Visit Vietnam for Legitimacy and Economic Outlets

Military leader Min Aung Hlaing, who has been sanctioned and ostracized by the international community and ASEAN due to the military coup, will visit Vietnam on September 4th, after transforming into an interim president and engaging with some countries that have been in contact, supporting, and cooperating with him. His wife, Daw Kyu Kyu Hla, will accompany him on the trip, which is scheduled from September 4th to 6th at the invitation of Vietnamese President To Lam, according to reports including those from Reuters. During this visit, the interim president will meet with Vietnamese President To Lam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, as well as figures from economic organizations, and will also attend the Myanmar-Vietnam Economic Forum. Vietnam, an ASEAN member and a Mekong region country, is a nation that continues to engage with the interim government for its own interests. Bilateral trade, which stood at 853 million US dollars in 2020 before the coup, dropped to 590 million US dollars in 2025 after the coup, but has since recovered to 335 million US dollars in the first six months of 2026. Therefore, Vietnam met with the interim government in August to discuss increasing bilateral trade to 1 billion US dollars. Furthermore, it is understood that Vietnam has requested security commitments from the interim government to protect 107 projects, including the Mytel telecommunications project valued at 1.4 billion US dollars, which is a joint venture between Vietnam's military-owned Viettel and the Myanmar military. These matters were discussed during the visit of Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung to Naypyidaw in August, when he met with the interim president. The interim government is hoping to receive assistance from Vietnam in military training and cybersecurity cooperation, and this trip marks the seventh country visited by the interim president, with the aim of demonstrating their legitimacy, reintegrating into ASEAN, and finding economic outlets, according to observers. On one hand, Myanmar, as the rotating chair this year for the ACMECS (Ayeyarwady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation) strategy and CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) cooperation, which include Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, is also planning to hold summit meetings. He has visited India, Laos, China, Russia, Belarus, and Thailand, which support and assist them for their own interests as an interim president, and it is known that after the current visit to Vietnam, there are plans to visit Cambodia again within this month.