Increasingly, governments are tiptoeing toward engaging with junta-led Myanmar

SURABAYA, Indonesia (CN) — After half a decade of condemnation from the international community, neighboring Asian countries and other nations are easing up on Myanmar’s junta-led government and President Min Aung Hlaing, a retired military officer who continues to wage a brutal war against his citizens.Together with much of the Western world, the United States limited its ties to the Southeast Asian nation after a 2021 military takeover. But over the past year, the Trump administration has edged toward a growing group of countries engaging with the brutal military regime, whether over border issues, immigration or for business.Since 2025, Trump has lifted sanctions on companies and individuals with close ties to Myanmar’s military junta, including generals.In September, a representative from the Trump administration and Myanmar’s junta held meetings, raising questions about whether Washington is acknowledging the coup directors as the country’s leaders, though they control less than a third of the nation’s territory.Myanmar has large deposits of rare earth minerals, which have drawn big investments from China. Media reports speculate Trump might have lowered tensions with Naypyidaw with an eye toward the critical minerals.“Washington’s decision to repeatedly lift sanctions against individuals and businesses connected to Myanmar’s military sends the disgraceful message that complicity in mass atrocities can be overlooked when it suits U.S. political and economic interests,” said Kyaw Win, director at U.K.-based Burma Human Rights Network.Asian neighbors reconsidering relationsBut the U.S. is far from alone. In October, Japan began pushing the Financial ​Action Task Force to remove Myanmar from its global financial crimes blacklist to ease doing business there.The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, had excluded the Myanmar regime from its annual summit meetings. Months after the 2021 coup, ASEAN demanded the junta-led leadership follow a Five-Point Consensus that involves restraining violence and allowing special envoys to meet all parties, among other promises.The regime has not met the demands, but ASEAN members are starting to hold diplomatic meetings with the junta-led government. Hlaing has visited India, China, Russia and five ASEAN states this year: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, welcomes Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing during their meeting at the Grand Kremlin Palace, in Moscow, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)Once one of ASEAN’s most outspoken Myanmar critics, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, hosted Hlaing in Kuala Lumpur in October, pledging to bring the nation back into the fold.Shortly after, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who had also opposed the junta, called for ASEAN to change its approach to Myanmar, saying the Five-Point Consensus did not work.Observers are watching to see if the regime continues its diplomatic advances, with Brunei and the bloc’s biggest economy, Indonesia, expected to meet the junta-led government soon.Asked if ASEAN has abandoned its position towards Myanmar, Win questioned the extent of the group’s opposition.“I reject the premise that ASEAN is abandoning a common position on Myanmar because ASEAN has never taken a meaningful position capable of constraining the military,” he told Courthouse News in an email.“The Five-Point Consensus was fundamentally flawed from day one, when ASEAN invited Min Aung Hlaing (just two months after he led an illegal military coup) to negotiate Myanmar’s future,” he said.Deadly civil warCivilians caught in the crossfire of a bloody civil war between resistance groups and the junta-led government, which is trying to seize full control of the country, die weekly. A U.N. report from Oct. 29 found over 8,300 civilians have been killed by the military since the 2021 coup. In total, more than 100,000 people have been killed and 5.1 million have been displaced, according to Global Conflict Tracker.The junta overthrew a democratically elected government and placed its shadow leader, Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest. Hlaing won what observers called a sham election in April.The nation faces a judgment from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, on Nov. 19. Gambia brought claims that Myanmar is conducting a genocide against the ethnic Rohingya people in northern Rakhine State.Rohingya refugees gather as they hold placards and flags to demand safe return to Myanmar's Rakhine state as they mark the eighth anniversary of their mass exodus at their refugee camp at Kutupalong in Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Shafiqur Rahman)The Myanmar Accountability Project receives fresh reports on massacres nearly every week, it told Courthouse News. Against that backdrop, ASEAN and Washington’s engagement with the regime is “appalling,” said Director Christopher Gunness.“It signals to the world what we already know, which is that international law and human rights protection mean absolutely nothing to the Trump administration, which puts profit, particularly for Trump administration officials, as a top priority,” he said in a video interview.According to Helene Maria Kyed, a researcher from the Danish Institute of International Studies with a specialty in Myanmar, the country’s latest election was used to speed up foreign recognition. Myanmar observers feared just such a result, she told Courthouse News in a phone interview.“It’s unfortunate. The U.S. has historically been a front-runner in supporting democratic institutions in Myanmar, and this connection has actually been quite strong with the Republican Party,” said Kyed.“With China’s strong presence in Myanmar’s rare earth minerals sector, I find it difficult to see the U.S. gaining a strong foothold there. And I find it a shame, because it’s a high price for the U.S. to pay after having invested so much in a democratic Myanmar,” she added.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads