Min Aung Hlaing Makes First Official Thailand Visit, Meets PM Anutin Charnvirakul

President Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Bangkok on August 6, 2026 for his first official visit to Thailand since the 2021 coup, meeting Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul at Government House on August 6-7. The two signed a memorandum of understanding on labor cooperation and discussed cross-border security, energy cooperation, trade facilitation, and border stability, agreeing to raise bilateral trade from $7.4 billion to a $12 billion target and reopening the Second Thailand-Myanmar Friendship Bridge (Mae Sot-Myawaddy). Thailand pledged to work toward Myanmar's 'full reintegration with ASEAN,' though ASEAN special envoy Maria Theresa Lazaro said normalization remained 'still far off.' Sixteen Thai civil-society and migrant-worker groups protested outside the UN office in Bangkok, calling the visit premature legitimization of a regime accused of war crimes; a Thai opposition MP also protested the 'red carpet welcome.'