Myanmar’s junta secures another diplomatic audience as BIMSTEC head visits Naypyidaw

BIMSTEC Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey met junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and senior regime officials in Naypyidaw from 22 to 24 June, as the regional bloc prepares to host Myanmar at a security advisers’ meeting in New Delhi next month, according to Myanmar’s foreign ministry and the BIMSTEC Secretariat. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a seven-member regional bloc grouping Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Established in 1997 and headquartered in Dhaka, it coordinates economic and security cooperation among countries bordering the Bay of Bengal, with India playing the leading role in its security sector. During the visit, Pandey called on Min Aung Hlaing, who told the BIMSTEC chief that Myanmar remained committed to expanding regional cooperation under the bloc and pointed to its “non-political character,” according to a BIMSTEC Secretariat statement. The visit comes ahead of the 5th BIMSTEC National Security Advisers’ Meeting, scheduled for 16 July in New Delhi, which follows up on a similar meeting Myanmar hosted in Nay Pyi Taw in July 2024, when Min Aung Hlaing – then serving as acting president – chaired the country’s military-led government. Min Aung Hlaing seized power in the February 2021 coup and was installed as Myanmar’s president in April 2026 following elections that democracy watchdogs and rights monitors have dismissed as lacking credibility, with voting unable to take place across large parts of the country still held by resistance forces, according to rights monitors. Pandey also met Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe, Home Minister Lt Gen Nyunt Win Swe, National Security Adviser Tin Aung San, and Agriculture Minister Min Naung during the three-day trip, according to the BIMSTEC Secretariat. The discussions covered counterterrorism, transnational crime, and maritime, food, climate, and energy security in the Bay of Bengal – areas in which Myanmar leads BIMSTEC’s agriculture and food security sector. The visit fits a broader pattern of regional re-engagement with Naypyidaw following the junta-administered elections, according to the International Crisis Group, which has cautioned foreign governments against conferring unwarranted legitimacy on the administration through high-level contact. The post Myanmar’s junta secures another diplomatic audience as BIMSTEC head visits Naypyidaw appeared first on ENG.MIZZIMA.COM.